Bladeborn:Of Fairies and Psions
by SotF
Summary: AFSFA crossover. A madman with the powers of ancient mystics manages to do what fairies believed impossible, capture Haven. A team of agents from the conspiracy ally with the fairies that manage to escape the conquest to attempt to come to the rescue.
1. Disclaimer And Acknowledgements

Okay this is the disclaimer, I do not own any of the Artemis Fowl characters so far, though most of the SFA characters I do own as they are RP characters in the campaign I play in and run. Two and Stiletto are characters that are not mine, they belong to AEG and their Spycraft:Shadow Force Archer world. Eoin Colfer owns the Artemis Fowl stuff, though if he would give them to me I would be very happy.  
  
I also would like to thank those that review this and those who created the worlds that I am now mixing together. And yes, like many PnP (pen and paper) RPGers, I read Artemis Fowl and statted out the characters in my head. That gave me the idea for it.  
  
Also, please review this as I am working on getting it to be right, if you see a glaring error, or just something a bit off, tell me so I can fix it. I have not yet read book three, I have the first two though and I'm basing what I have on that plus the little that I know about book three.  
  
And also, I will point out that Artemis Fowl is a wonderful Pointman all the way. 


	2. Prologue Fallen Angels

Prologue  
  
Six months earlier.  
  
Anton was not smiling as he entered Two's office. He had lost everything and wanted to get out. His family, his friends had all been wiped off the face of the earth in a matter of hours. All the family he had left were a few distant cousins who he had never met face to face, though he would see at the funeral for all of his family, his parents and his grandparents. A car bomb aimed at eliminating him and taken them out instead.  
  
His few remaining friends in the conspiracy had flown in to meet him, even Stiletto who had been a family friend before he joined the conspiracy and knew her true job. She was one of the controls of the different chambers, hers was the one in the UK, the place where his family had died. Knowing that made him feel better about how it couldn't be avoided, but it still hurt.  
  
He entered Two's office with a manila envelope containing his resignation and retirement, he needed to get out, he couldn't cut it anymore. The grief was to much for him. He felt the warmth of the blade resting against his back, its power still filled him and the Guardians had said that it was only his now and they couldn't take it from him because it chooses its own master.  
  
He placed it down, seeing the understanding and quiet acceptance in his friends face as he walked out. The look of knowing that it was the grief doing the actions.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Lucas groaned in pain as he crawled from the river, he felt the wound that was flowing with his own blood as he felt the darkness within him grow. He had to get even with that self righteous bastard who had nearly killed him with the relic that he had uncovered. He had failed in his bid for power, but now he could rebuild.  
  
The ruins of the fortress he had built was still burning against the midnight sky as he laughed at the world who now believed him dead, and yet he was a coming force, a force that nothing would stop again!  
  
* * * * *  
  
One hour earlier  
  
"Julius, get to operations immediately!" Foaly yelled into the comms as he chugged another coffee, it was a very lat night and it was still getting later as he waited for the officer to come running.  
  
"Alright donkey-boy what is it now, and if I hear you call me Julius one more time!"  
  
"We have a situation above ground, seems that a pack of trolls blundered onto an unknown path to the surface in Ireland, we're still trying to trace their rout."  
  
"Well, get someone on it!"  
  
"Sure thing Julius!"  
  
"What did I just say about calling me Julius!" 


	3. Chapter 1:Blindsided

I am what I am, the voice whispered within as he stood there, eyes closed. It had been a long and trying day, but he rested calmly, feeling his energy flow within him. He was an odd one those in the program had said, but then again, he left the program and had kept his silence.  
  
The silver light of the moon, full and clear filled him, as he sat there upon the hill, his blade, an ancient Katana, a samurai sword, lay besides him as he slowed his breathing. It was a calm place, his leather clothes kept him warm and the helmet he wore was still closed to block out the sounds that came from the village he had stopped at for the night.  
  
It felt good to be in this ancient land, the emerald isle, Ireland was a place he desired to visit but he sensed power here, power different than elsewhere. He remembered when he had learned the secrets that the Guardians had taught him when they found that he had the gift of second sight, the Sixth Sense though that brought forth the quote from that blasted movie about seeing dead people.  
  
Being one of the first psions to manifest all three abilities was something that made it a struggle to get free of the conspiracy, though he still had contacts, each of them hoping to be the ones to bring him back into the fold, something he would never do.  
  
He felt the weapon he kept holstered inside of his trench coat, the mini-Uzi was a comfort to him, though he knew that the ancient blade he bore was more powerful, the gun reminded him that he was truly still human though some would disagree.  
  
Suddenly, he felt something nearby, rage, anger, and pain. Something that was beastial, yet humanoid in a matter of speaking. He locked onto it and he rolled to his feet, as he knew it was heading for the village.  
  
Running full out, he covered the distance to an intercept point easily, his eyes easily changing to view it in night vision as he stopped atop a hilltop, his motorcycle helmet shut and glinting off of the diamond coating. He gripped his blade by its hilt, one hand of the grip and one on the sheath.  
  
Slowly, he pulled th sheath off of the blade, wood against metal, and he gently laid the sheath against the ancient stone wall he decided was the point where he would have to hold it back from, a point where he could not let it cross.  
  
His mind identified three more minds now distinct from the first, a hostile situation for a normal human, but he was far from a normal human, he was a merger of three specialized psion types, capable of things that would make most people scream and run in terror. He focused his mind as he spotted the movement.  
  
The first thought he had when he saw them, was that they must be chemical monsters, made by one of the Russian groups, most likely, PERIL. He felt these creatures minds now as they spotted him, he saw their claws slowly extend as he cleared his mind of all doubt.  
  
He hated to kill, but then again, it was them or him and the village. Then he realized something, their minds weren't human, far from it, closer to a combination of a chimpanzee and a hyena, and they wanted to eat him.  
  
Okay, he thought, not PERIL related, but still unusual, Guardian problem most likely, but mine at the moment.  
  
Then the time for thought was over as he moved forwards, blade glistening in the moon light as he twirled, cleaving the head of the nearest foe clean off with the first blow, its body collapsed like a sack of bricks.  
  
Blood splattered around as the severed head rolled to a stop, everything was silent for a moment as the three remaining foes moved to strike, like a pack of wolves.  
  
The two on the sides lunged at him, they would have taken out a normal human, but ,again, he was far from human. He teleported, the power to slow time around him was an effortless move as he leaped over them to land upon the wall as they slammed into each other, blade moving once more, literally disarming one of them with an upward strike.  
  
Unfortunately the blade struck bone from a bad angle and was stuck deep in the creatures shoulder though the arm was on the ground. He couldn't get a good grip on the hilt as it roared and lunged at him. But once more he was gone, leaping vertical, drawing his mini-Uzi and snapping off the safety, thanking God that he had loaded it with armor piercing rounds.  
  
Flipping backwards in a jump, he pulled the trigger as he landed, the guns distinctive bucking calmed him as he shredded the one of the uninjured enemies with the entire clip, making it look like Swiss cheese before it collapsed to the ground almost simultaneously with the empty cartridge for the sub machine gun.  
  
He focused his mind as he reholstered it, mentally kicking himself for not carrying more than one clip, but he was still armed. He focused him mind, remembering the powers he had experienced. As he stepped off the wall, he felt a slight tingling, electricity, it was going to be an easy win as he channeled the power into his hands while the remaining intact beast lunged, but he released the electricity as a stream of lightning that poured from his hand, tearing into his foe, making it catch fire and fall twitching to the ground, golden sparks of energy still coursing over it followed by it catching ablaze.  
  
The injured creature was all that was left to deal with an it lunged at him, forcing him to react with a foot sweep, tripping it as he rolled to the side, hands finally getting a good rip on the hilt of the blade and yanking it free of the creatures flesh as he spun under a slash of its claws to drive the blade into the creatures chest and upwards through the shoulder, dropping it to join the others in a heap of corpses.  
  
He really didn't like killing anything, but it was something he could do if it was necessary for survival of himself or others.  
  
Slowly he wiped the gore from his blade on the grass, the night to late for him to tell the color, but that could theoretically wait until morning to discover unless there was a cleanup team following these creatures. It would be worth investigating though.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Code Black, Code Black." the alarms were blazing again and again in LEP headquarters in Haven.  
  
"Foaly!" yelled an overweight Fairy that was raging through the building, "Cut that blasted siren!"  
  
"Julius, we have four trolls located on the surface in Ireland, sector 7," the centaur responded as the alarm died down.  
  
"What," the other stuttered, his name was Root, Julius Root, Commander of the LEP, "Is it Fowl!"  
  
"No," the centaur said as he fiddled with a console, "Retrieval One is enrout to the signal though."  
  
"Good," said the Root,, realizing that he was mellowing with edge.  
  
It was then that the comms board chimed prompting Foaly to open communications.  
  
"This is Trouble," came the call over the comms, as the centaur grinned slightly remembering the last time a troll made it to the surface, "You need to see this, I'm recording it for the record, but a mudman is homing in on the Trolls, he appears to be armed."  
  
The centaur turned on a monitor and it displayed a leather clad figure standing patiently, and pull out a sheathed sword.  
  
Something is wrong here, he thought as he watched, a gleaming blade slowly exited the sheath, and the figure laid it down against a stone wall.  
  
"Take down the Trolls as fast as you can," Root yelled, "We need to prevent all of the casualties we can, and that mudman has no idea what he is going up against!"  
  
Suddenly the trolls entered sight of the human, and charged, Root realized just as quickly that Retrieval One wouldn't be able to stop it in time, the man was a goner for sure. He slowly closed his eyes, hoping for some sort of miracle. A dismembered mudman would be hard to hide or cover up.  
  
"Amazing," Foaly gasped, prompting Root to open his eyes to see one of the Trolls fall to the ground missing its head, it looked like a clean blow to, one stroke, one kill.  
  
"He's not out of it yet," Julius whispered as he pointed at the other three trolls moving to circle the man and lunge at him, claws speeding towards home.  
  
Or they would have if the man hadn't vanished.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Trouble yelled over the comms as he glanced around trying to figure out what had happened, then he spotted the man appear to materialize atop the wall before striking again, severing another trolls arm, but his blade seemed to be trapped between bones.  
  
But the man wasn't out of tricks yet, he pulled out a weapon, a gun, a type non of the LEP officers recognized at first, even Foaly.  
  
After tapping a few keys the centaur turned to the others, "That is an Uzi, appears to be trimmed down, and definitely has an automatic mode though."  
  
The mudman leaped backwards in a flip as the gun opened up, riddling another troll full of bullets.  
  
"That guy has armor piercing rounds of some kind!" Trouble gasped as the man reholstered the weapon as it clicked empty, "But if he doesn't have any more tricks up his sleeve he is a goner!"  
  
Suddenly, what appeared to be lightning came coursing through the mans hand, striking the remaining intact troll dead center, sending it into convulsions and lighting it on fire.  
  
"How did he." all three watchers stammered as the man grabbed hold of the hilt of his blade and tore it free.  
  
The man spun under a strike and sliced the last remaining troll from belly to shoulder, killing it.  
  
"Sir," Trouble said calmly, "What am I supposed to do, that man took down four trolls in less than three minutes, how am I supposed to mind wipe someone who took down that kind of force so easily."  
  
"Return to base," Root said, eyes and mouth still wide open in amazement, "We'll figure out what to do next."  
  
"Yes, sir," Trouble grunted as the camera shifted to show him heading off.  
  
"Foaly," Root managed to stutter, "Get me Holly Short, now!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton leaned back in the chair, his weapons arrayed before him. It had been a long while since he had talked to people who were under the cloak, but he still had a few favors that people owed him. He had a few contacts in Room 39 that might be able to help him, as would some of the Fringewalkers that he knew from Division Nihil.  
  
He doubted that they had the answers for what he needed, but it was worth a shot, he knew it would be nearly impossible to contact the Guardians of the Whispering Knife so he wasn't planning on trying.  
  
Another question plagued his mind, his powers had seemed to grow since he had left the fold even though it was with good grace and not burned. He hadn't been able to use such force with his powers; he had taken something down with one hit, and lit it up like a Christmas tree. It shouldn't be possible to have powers of that magnitude. It shouldn't, but it was.  
  
He felt something, a presence brushed his mind, something that mystics normally only caused him to feel. He cleared his mind and changed his form of seeing, then he spotted something on infrared, a figure that appeared similar to a child, but not quite. One more thing he couldn't put his finger on.  
  
Whoever the intruder was, they should have no clue about some of the surprises he had already installed in the small cottage, he owned it even though he also owned an old castle nearby. While the old fortress was being modernized, he was living here, but there were enough security features to make most people cringe, unfortunately most of them he had forgot to arm at the moment, his mind so busy with the battle he had fought in.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Why me?" Holly Short groaned as she jumped to her feet.  
  
"Because you have experience with mud men," Root said calmly, "And that gives you the best chance of any of us."  
  
Both Holly and Foaly still found it strange that Root had mellowed as much as he had, changing from a screamer to a calm and calculating individual. He had nearly been killed, and that changes people, it really changes them. The LEP commander had given up his cigars as well, though his actions were far scarier to the new recruits as he would sit and watch, calmly and emotionlessly.  
  
"My last contact didn't end up so well at the beginning," Holly commented.  
  
"That's why your going in prepared, with Retrieval One and Two as backup, this guy took out four trolls single handedly without a scratch on him and in under four minutes."  
  
"That.that.that's impossible!" she managed to stutter, "Even Butler barely won against one troll!"  
  
Foaly slid her a video screen and within five minutes she was out the door and on her way. 


	4. Chapter 2:Meetings

Chapter 2  
He remembered the past, the time he had found his blade. It had been found among the spoils of a rogue agents stash, defeating that terrorist had cost him his teams life. It was something that had changed him, to lose everyone. His codename was Blaze then, before he gave it up, all of it.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Blaze!" he heard Seraph yell as the sniper popped up behind a barrel, "Take cover, the Hand of Glory sent in a mystic, someone named Kabal!"  
  
"I knew him," Anton replied, "He was in the same room as me during training!"  
  
"He went rogue about a month ago, I thought that you were informed of that?"  
  
"Guys," yelled a third voice, "Shade here, shrike has a confirmed contact on level five, what the."  
  
The radio contact was cut off by an explosion that sent scraps of metal flying into the sky, eliminating the building to his right.  
  
* * * * *  
  
He wondered how much of the Fringe and the Spirit world was connected here, after that fight he had studied for so long. But it wasn't very long before he heard a noise as one of the mines he had planted in the front yard went off.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Holly screamed as she felt an impact to the side of her head just as she noticed several figures in the bushes cloaked in black. She slumped to the ground as she saw one of the figures step forward.  
  
.and vanish in an explosion..  
  
One of the black clad figures grabbed her as her vision faded.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton clicked a button on his nightstand as he grabbed his coat and slung it over his shoulders, he was glad he always stayed dressed unless he was going to sleep, and he gabbed several clips of ammunition and leaped from the window.  
  
His mind was clear as to his actions, his weapons came up as he saw two of them lifting someone, it looked like a child.  
  
He spun, firing off six shots at the nearest foes, using the smoldering hole in earth caused by the mine and a half pound of Charlie four to make the limpet have a bigger boom for his buck,  
  
He heard gunfire and he moved rolling forwards drawing his blade, it was time.  
  
The katana felt his call, and it seemed to be alight with a fire the color of the moons light, the sword seemed to evaporate and surround him, infusing him with its power, a beast blade had been activated.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"What on earth is going on up there!" Foaly screamed into the mike, "Holly, Holly do you read me?"  
  
"Uuungh," the elf moaned as her eyes blinked open, her iris cam activating just in time to be hit by a bright blast of light.  
  
Holly's eyes didn't burn like it was sunlight, it felt strong, like when the Ritual happened, she felt stronger as she noticed the retrieval teams joining the fray, and a pillar of white flame.  
  
"Captain Short!" Root said, his nerves fraying and very much needing a drink, "What on earth is going on there, I feel strange down here and we can't figure out what is going on!"  
  
"Magic," she whispered awestruck as the light faded down to see a figure their, an armored figure.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Trouble kelp yelled as the energy wave washed over him, until he felt it make him stronger, but then the mudmen had opened fire, guns blazing in all directions, though both retrieval teams where to startled to shield.  
  
Then Grub was hit, knocked out of the sky when a bullet pierced his shoulder and firefly unit.  
  
The younger elf looked at Trouble, eyes wide and in pain as his magic tried to heal him, but there was to much damage.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton stepped forwards, the crimson, gold, and black armor that now covered him standing out like a sore thumb in the open, but his foes were to busy firing at forms in the sky.  
  
His armored boots moved across the ruble strewn about his yard as he struck with his blade, bisecting one of the gunmen and grabbing one of the figures out of the air, a wounded one that was tumbling from the sky with as much grace as a wingless duck.  
  
He saw a rocket launcher come up, aiming at him as heclosed his eyes and took a deep breath, and then the flames came. 


	5. Chapter 3:Phoenix's Blade

Chapter 3  
  
Anton felt the flames, but he was not consumed by them as he used it to empower his healing energies before he forced them into the injured figure he held in his arms, a kid had no business being shot at, but where on earth did kids get that kind of hardware.  
  
He didn't have much time left to think as he stepped from the blaze caused by the incendiary rocket, his blade still glowing like the moon as he walked towards the man with the rocket launcher as he horridly struggled to reload it, but the blade severed the mans head from his body before he got very far.  
  
His body felt warm as he felt the world around him, the powers of the phoenix flooding him, the blades gift, the bane of evil, one of the seven beast blades of legend. It had chosen him on that fateful day all so long ago when he was referred to as Blaze. It had been less than two months since he had lost nearly everything, he went there when his parents were in the hospital, dying, he was trying to save the world when he should have been there, been there when his parents died.  
  
The rest of his family was still not speaking to him because of that. It was the reason he left his job, and that mission, the one he went on, had cost him his entire team, including the control in under six hours, then he ound the blade and destroyed the bastard who had killed his friends.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Trouble was amazed when he saw the human grab his brother, and then his heart sank again as the explosion surrounded him. But then a miracle happened, the man was unharmed and his brother was healed.  
  
Something was different about this man, the way he moved, and there was a power to him, a power like nothing a living fairy could remember. It was a force that reminded him of the few human legends the fairies truly knew, the legends of the first Atlantis, and the legends of Excalibur, a legend of blades, seven swords made to be united by the true lord of the world, a legend that signified the end of the separation between the races and a power that would unleash magic among the humans.  
  
"Foaly," he yelled into his mike, "If we bring this mudman down, it'll cost us quite a bit, he survived a direct hit by an incendiary before he just.I'll get back to you, are you watching this!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The centaur and Roots jaws couldn't drop farther when they saw the mudman approach the truck; he appeared to be very calmly lifting the truck into the air with one hand.  
  
.and use it like a war club through about half of his foes before letting go of the vehicle mid swing to send it tumbling end over end to take out one of Holly's captors without even touching the tip of the elven hair on her head.  
  
It was getting to be far to much for Root as his eyes got wide enough, Foaly was seriously contemplating what he would do if the commanders eyes popped out. The day just kept on getting stranger and stranger, though it wasn't all bad, just that it showed no sign of slowing down.  
  
Root was seriously considering going back to that shrink the council forced him into seeing after the Fowl incidents. Mudmen seemed to always be messing with his head, whether or not he realized it at the time, so far chaos was the main thing involved.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Holly moaned again, still waking up, as she saw an armored figure hit the figure to her right and the one on her left was already gone, she fell to the ground, trying to figure out what the D'arvit was going on here.  
  
She rolled to the left to avoid a retreating figure, though the armored one stopped over her, fending off a series of blows with what appeared to be a sword against a piece of pipe or some other metal.  
  
The fight was going on and with the damage to the helmet, she was having trouble seeing what was going on through the spider webs in the visor.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton lunged forwards, dropping the nearest foe with a roundhouse kick to the solar plexus and his lade finished off another. He raised his hand, Uzi at the ready, he opened up at the nearest group of foes as he saw more bodies falling from the air.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Trouble was in a panic, most of the mudmen were shooting skywards on full auto at both retrieval teams like a hot knife through butter. It was chaos, complete and utter chaos.  
  
"Who are these people?" he hissed into the mike as he felt a bullet graze him through his helmet.  
  
"I don't know," Foaly said, the shock of him not knowing something and confusion was plain on his face.  
  
"D'arvit!" Trouble groaned as he realized that he was the only one from retrieval one still airborne, and only one of five elves still flying.  
  
* * * * *  
  
It was getting to bloody for such a simple fight, but then again, normally when outsiders get involved, things get very bloody and messy. Normally not something worth getting involved in, but it looked like kids got caught up in a team that was coming to take him out.  
  
Assassination attempts made Anton mad, very mad. He liked to let the assassin feel the pain of death, quick and deadly.  
  
He had culled his foes to a dozen men who appeared to be retreating when he saw more bodies fall from the sky, it looked like one was left in the air took a hit in the knee.  
  
Anger filled him for a moment as he charged, blade to his right in a thrust position. He felt the flames surround him as he felt the blood in his eyes.  
  
He focused upon the powers of pyrokinesis, and the flames of anger became corporeal in his hands, lancing down and encompassing the katana.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Does that guy have goblin blood in him or something," Holly managed to murmur as she came to her senses watching a pillar of flame rise from the humans foes and then he turned, and stepped forwards.  
  
He walked towards her, energy cascading around him with red gold sparks that scattered around him like a whirlwind and then the armor was gone, leaving him as just a man standing there in black leather holding a sword.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton sighed in relief as it was over, he stepped towards the nearest of the ones that looked like kids. He sheathed his blade and walked over as the crack of a gunshot pierced the air and he dove forwards trying to shield the one before him.  
  
His mind realized that he wasn't the target as the kid was hit in the stomach and collapsed backwards. He glanced around and saw no one, but he climbed to his feet and ran over, seeing pale blue sparks cascading across the figure as he picked her up in his arms and carried her towards his hummer.  
  
Quickly stuffing her into the rear seat, he grabbed the one he had healed and put him in as well as the last airborne one landed on his rooftop.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Holly felt pain as she hit the ground. She knew something was wrong, her magic wasn't healing her, there was something terribly with her.  
  
She coughed slowly, hands fumbling with the catches of her helmet, she let it fall off, at least that would let her breathe properly, though she was still hurting, she couldn't move enough to see where she had been hit, but she touched it with her fingers and looked, the gloved hand was slick with crimson.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Trouble was wondering what was going on as he landed on the vehicle, it was strange that the man was taking off that quick.  
  
"What are you doing with them!" he exclaimed at the man.  
  
"If you hadn't noticed," the man shot back, "This place is no longer secure, and, kid, I need better equipment if I'm going to help."  
  
"I'm not a kid!" Trouble growled, he was shocked and angered, but he knew the man was right, "I'm not even human."  
  
"I knew that," the man said calmly, "I could sense that, by the way, names Anton." 


	6. Chapter 4:Dark Times

Chapter 4  
  
The room was dark, though dry and clean. It was lit by thousands of candles along the walls, though it was still to dark to see the rest easily, though the forms were visible, as were the people who seemed to be made of darkness in a way.  
  
"Has Eva Krauss fulfilled her end of the bargain?" said one figure, heavily armored and standing tall besides another.  
  
The other held a case up to the first man, the first opened it to reveal a slender blade, a bastard sword, with an ancient grip but a new blade. The guard portrayed two snarling wolves heads as did the pommel.  
  
"So Marcus," the first man whispered, "The Bitch did the job we had asked of her."  
  
"Yes, Lucas, before I impaled her with my dagger."  
  
"Then we now have a new beast blade to face Blazes with, and a secret weapon that even he has no clue about."  
  
"Shall I have our guest brought in?"  
  
"Yes, my friend," Lucas whispered softly and slowly, "Bring Opal Koboi to me at once, I have been expecting her to begin to talk now that I have a more visible magic that she."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Lucas smiled as he slowly swung the blade in a sparring room, the blade was perfectly formed, a weapon crafted by both hands and spells. A weapon that rivaled Excalibur and the other six beast blades made before, and now he was forming more blades in various places and scattering them secretly.  
  
The blades had wills of their own and would seek out their masters, the Wulf, as he had named this blade, bore the powers of the wolf and would allow him to become a powerful force to take on the one who had beaten him all so long ago.  
  
Blaze had thought him dead, but he had missed the vial that was already injecting into his bloodstream as he had walked away.  
  
He had, at first, formed an alliance of sorts with two of the Foundations enemies and then a third, it was now time for him to begin to eliminate his rivals and usurp their positions, he would be a god and none would be able to stop him.  
  
He felt the magic within the blade come to him as one of his servant girls was sent in, so innocent and pure. A perfect creature to sacrifice to activate the blade. The first seven had been cooled in the blood of their creatures and then a sacrifice was made to the essences of the blades, a sacrifice that required the victim to be pure.  
  
She looked at him with terror, the white robes fluttering as she scrambled backwards, tugging on the door as he advanced upon her, blade in hand.  
  
She screamed as he thrusted, blade tearing through her between the breasts. He lifted the weapon, watching the blood drip down the blade as the sacrifice kicked and tried to scream, struggling to live as the blade began to glow like moonlight and a whisp of wind filled the room sounding like a wolfs howl on a far off hill at the peak of the full moon. Her breathing slowed and stopped as her head lolled to the side.  
  
Tilting the blade, she slid off with a wet plop to the stones of the floor in a slowly expanding pool of blood.  
  
Lucas did not look the same as he was now clad in black, grey, and white armor similar to Anton's, but seeming to be made of fear and darkness. The blade had awakened. 


	7. Chapter 5:Black Keep

Chapter 5  
  
Anton pulled his hummer up to the entrance of the castle his family had owned for generations. He slipped his hand out of the fingerless glove and placed it on the scanner. It flashed slowly, registering the print as he felt the slight prick of the DNA scanner and the flash of the retina scan.  
  
"Cite your name," came the metallic voice of the computer.  
  
He leaned out of the window of the vehicle and up to the mike before speaking, "Anthony Black."  
  
"Welcome home Master Black," the machine spoke as the iron portcullis rose and the ancient, yet perfectly maintained doors swung open into the garden.  
  
A rainbow of flowers rose all around the vehicle as they entered the outer wall. It had been well maintained for centuries. He stopped in front of keep, the part that had been most modernized before the last few weeks when the outer walls were being renovated and all of the security measures updated to Archer Foundation standards and beyond. For intruders it was a giant death trap designed to keep the occupants safe and secure.  
  
"You carry the small one," he said to trouble, pointing at the still unconscious grub as he walked around and picked up Holly, "Damn, she's still bleeding."  
  
He walked up the steps to have the door opened by one of the butlers, standard household servants who stood at attention waiting for him to ask for whatever he wanted at the time.  
  
"Jason," he said to the man as he carried the injured elf through the door, "Get the medical room ready, someone tried to take me out at the cottage, or at least take these people out."  
  
The man nodded as he walked over to a monitor and began to speak as Trouble stopped at the door.  
  
"Errm," he said, "I can't come in unless you invite me in."  
  
"Well," Anton said calmly as he hit a button on the elevator, "Come in then!"  
  
The elf staggered in, carrying his brother in both arms as the elevator opened and they both stepped in.  
  
"Ok," Anton said calmly, though the adrenaline was starting to leave his system, "I know your not human, and I know your not kids, so what on Earth are you?"  
  
"Fairies," Trouble stated matter of factly, "And that's all I can tell you."  
  
The elevator stopped and opened swiftly as Anton stepped out and into an ancient stone hallway.  
  
"Well," Anton said calmly, "I'm assuming that those bullets she got a hit with were some of those new shredder rounds, Iron tipped, designed to spread out after impact."  
  
"Iron would do it," the elf said calmly as Anton entered a room with two medical tables and two maids in nurses gear.  
  
Anton placed Holly on the first table; and Trouble placed Grub on the second.  
  
"I think the small one just needs a rest," Anton said pointing to Grub.  
  
"His name is Grub, and the one you carried in is named Holly," Trouble said as he glanced about worriedly.  
  
"I suggest that we leave this to the professionals," Anton said as he stepped out, stopping only long enough to rinse the blood from his hands, "I'm only good at a few bits and pieces of first aid, these two, "he indicated the two in nursing gear, "Are trained professionals."  
  
Trouble nodded, knowing quite well that those without the right knowledge could do more harm than good to someone injured as Holly was.  
  
"I bet your going to ask me how I pulled off the stunt with the flames," Anton said as he walked into a small kitchenette, pouring himself a glass of iced tea from a fridge and offering one to his companion.  
  
"How did you guess," Trouble said as he took the glass and sat down upon a couch with a view into the medical room.  
  
"Because I have more than just the powers to pull off some of those stunts," Anton said as he sat down on a chair, "I'm a psion, I can do more than play with fire and throw around cars, I can read peoples minds."  
  
He took a drink of the tea and smiled, "Its draining though."  
  
"I meant the whole armored thing," Trouble said coldly, "How did you get armor like that and get rid of it that quickly?"  
  
"Magic," Anton said as he walked back over to the counter, placing his weapons on the counter, "And a relic of a time long gone."  
  
"How long gone?" the fairy asked.  
  
"Several thousand at the least,' Anton said with a slight chuckle, "The blade I wield is a relic forged in Atlantis before it sank beneath the waves."  
  
"Atlantis is still there," Trouble said before catching himself.  
  
"So that explains the readings the Company picked up near Cuba."  
  
"Company?"  
  
"That's something I cannot explain to you, though we could trade information."  
  
"Why should I trust you?"  
  
"Well," Anton said calmly, "I don't really have an answer that would not compromise what promises that I have made."  
  
"I guess that I could trade information," Trouble said as his headset cackled.  
  
"Trouble," the voice said, Trouble cringed as he realized that it was Root. 


	8. Interlude 1 The Prophecy

Seven blades forged upon a moonless night  
Each forged of the two elements to keep the balance  
Iron and silver  
Silver and Iron  
As Atlantis fell, its powers were forged within  
The blades and scattered among the world.  
Each to a land of their own  
A powerful force  
Each within held a powerful beast  
A Power of legend  
A power of nightmare  
Each awaits the one destined to retrieve them  
And to fight for them  
The first to appear will carry the powers of rebirth  
From the ashes of a fallen angel  
The sword shall reach a blaze  
The Phoenix shall rise again to fight the dark  
A myth of purity and light shall arise from the farthest north  
Its light shall shine anew to cover the dawn of fate.  
The Unicorn shall fight for its master.  
The twin of the light shall arise like as a viper  
Its blackness waiting in the shadows to strike.  
A serpent shall be born of dark and fury.  
In an ancient place of refuge  
A hall of haven, the earth shall proclaim a blade  
A Golem shall rise to the aid of the one in need.  
In hands greedy for power lies a blade of flame  
Its mighty power tempered until it reaches the wings.  
A dragon sleeps dreaming of the time to awake  
Beneath the deepest blue, a blade is hidden  
Not far from the forge, a Kraken waits  
In a place where knowledge is passed  
And magic is a thing of glee and despair  
A noble gryphon awaits the hands of its master.  
When the phoenix arises, a new blade will arise  
And with it countless more  
Fallen angels shall attempt to use them against their destiny  
But the blades will fail save for the one that howls.  
A wolf born of the pure shall become the opposite of the first  
And all will have a match  
Then the fate of the world will rely upon a choice  
And a matter of blood shall determine all.  
An elven gift shall save the world from itself  
As those of the emerald past and the archers forced of the shadows  
Join as one force, and their causes shall be complete. 


	9. Chapter 6:About A Corpse

Chapter 6  
  
"Trouble," Root said into the mike, "We have a situation down here, Opal Koboi escaped about twelve hours ago, but then we found her on the surface, it isn't a very pretty sight."  
  
"So, what do you want me to do?"  
  
"Go north, the body was found on the surface near Loch Ness, she was stabbed by an Iron dagger," Root recited, "And currently we're having a flare up, you're the only active unit on the surface, we need you to deal with retrieving the body."  
  
"Who found her?"  
  
Foaly intercepted the death certificate, though he does admit that there was another intercept, though we cannot locate the source, also, the recovery of the Trolls didn't happen, the unit sent returned saying that they corpses were missing."  
  
"Well," Trouble answered slowly, "I don't have any transportation, and I'm at that Anton's house, Holly and Grub are being patched up and."  
  
"Who's Anton?" Root yelled.  
  
"The Mudman, he saved Grub and Holly needed help."  
  
"This had better not end in a situation like Fowl."  
  
"I don't believe so sir, he has been most helpful so far, I would like Foaly to run an organization by the name of the Company, and the name Anthony Black."  
  
"All I've got on the Company, if that's all, comes from what appears to be a group of mudmen conspiracy freaks going by the name the Eyes of Argus," Foaly cut in, "and as for your friend." Foaly whistled, ".Military intelligence, three different special forces teams, seven black belts, demolitions training, and about two hundred different medals and awards, his record has a six year gap leading to now other than occasional sightings recorded around the world, he surfaced about a month back."  
  
"So he appears to be capable of keeping a secret," Root said calmly.  
  
"Yes I am," came a voice over the comms.  
  
All three fairies seemed startled, coming from the coughing noises they made and the startled gasp from Foaly.  
  
"Relax," Anton said with a slight smile, "I knew you were talking, not very much signal traffic at this range though, nice decrypt, took me fifteen seconds to crack though, three times my usual."  
  
"I forgot to mention the linguistics and cryptography training he received when attached to NATO special operations," Foaly said sheepishly.  
  
"Good to know you can access my normal records all so easily," Anton said with a chuckle, "I received a report from one of my allies about a body turning up that wasn't human, I assumed you knew what it was, the form was similar to yours."  
  
"You.intercepted.that." Root gasped, face beginning to turn bright red.  
  
"Not me specifically," Anton said, "One of those I'm allied with did, and well I'm the closest non-assigned operative in the area."  
  
"So will you help us?" Foaly asked nervously.  
  
"Yeah," Anton said calmly, "For a slight price."  
  
"Why does this always happen?" Root grumbled.  
  
"I don't know," Foaly stuttered.  
  
"I didn't say what that price was," Anton said calmly, "I know you have magic, and I'm searching for something, I have a blade, I need you to locate its brothers."  
  
"Finding a specific sword is hard to do," Foaly admitted, "A needle in a haystack."  
  
"Well then, how about a set of charmed swords that have the power to sense their brothers."  
  
"Charmed?" Foaly asked, "So that's how you did all that stuff."  
  
"Most of that has to do with other things, but some of it, yes."  
  
"I guess we have a deal Captain." Root began.  
  
"Just Mr. I'm not in the military anymore, though I am close to several parts of it."  
  
"Mr. Black?" Root continued, flustered.  
  
"Yes," Anton said with a slight smile, "Oh, and it would appear that the others are out of medical, we should see to them before we journey out."  
  
Authors Note: Please review, I'd like your opinions on it. And even if you think that Anton is a Mary Sue, he isn't, he's an RPG character from the Shadow Force Archer campaign setting for Spycraft. I rolled him up and statted him out. He's one that I play as, I'll post his current stats if you want. He's not a normal human due to his relic and the fact that he is a triple psion. 


	10. Chapter 7:Plottings

Chapter 7  
  
Darkness was always a part of Lucas' life, something he had early on let consume him, he controlled it, made it his own. If he hadn't it would have destroyed him. People always believed that he was helping them while he viewed it as an exercise in exploitation, see how much he could get out of it while they were beginning to realize that he was up to something.  
  
The information he had dragged out of Opal Koboi had provided him just one more bit of information that would lead to the downfall of the one who had managed to defeat him the last time he had tried to win, now he had the keys to get his revenge.  
  
The fairy had given him access to a group the conspiracy didn't know about, although either the Guardians of the Whispering Knife or perhaps Division Nihil had some knowledge of. Eva had known about the fairies for just a short time and was planning upon using them to help her gain her companion, but it was to late for her now.  
  
He ran his fingers across the mythril pommel of Wulf as he paced back and forth. Opals book was being translated by his computers as he waited, the fairy had surrendered it thinking that it would be the means to remain among the living. How foolish she was for trusting him, and it was all he had wanted, but his weapon needed blood, so she fed his weapon, made it stronger.  
  
He felt the darkness within the blade and it matched the darkness within his own heart. He fingered the soft gold cover of the book, it was a power that was almost within his grasp, a force that would allow him to do as he wished, and rule, he dreamed of the grandest thing there was, he would rule the world, he would rule the universe itself.  
  
Lucas felt the powers within him, the secrets he had been uncovering since before the conspiracy had taken him, it would be an interesting few weeks. Well, as the ancient curse said, May you live in interesting times, and he was causing the interesting times part, a pity for the world that they had been cursed with him when that had been spoken.  
  
It was coming close to the time he felt he was appointed by whatever gods really existed to rule the world and everything else there was. The Olympians had left the building unoccupied for the next deity to occupy. Well, the world needed uniting under the darkness, and a wolf would rule the world with them believing him a sheep.  
  
A time of reckoning was coming to pass, and he would be the grand inquisitor for all to know and fear.  
  
The computer chimed and a screen came up, lime green colors against a midnight black background.  
  
The Booke Of The People. 


	11. Chapter 8:Recovery

Chapter 8  
  
"Hang onto your rears," Anton laughed as he finished strapping into the Phantom, a VTOL transport that had been recovered some time back when his team had gone against a Shop team of blade hawks in northern Ireland. He had stashed it here as a precautionary measure. Lately he had updated it and worked on teasing a little bit more power out of its generators.  
  
It was an interesting craft, a powerful one, he knew it was capable of short hypersonic jaunts, and that was what he was going to use.  
  
"This is your captain speaking," he said into the inter-craft comms, "We're at cruising altitude and about to get some serious speed, so hang on tight, because it will feel like we're blasting off."  
  
"What?" Trouble managed to yelp just as Anton shoved the throttle bar into the full position.  
  
He heard Grub shriek in terror as he felt the G-force suddenly crank up as the afterburners lit to full. The normal stealth gear wasn't going to be helpful on this mission, so full throttle was how it would go.  
  
"WHAT THE D'ARVIT DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING!" he heard a female voice behind him, louder than the engines.  
  
"Getting this mission accomplished," he yelled back as he went low and fast in and out with the engines blazing.  
  
"Anton," he heard Trouble say, "Watch out or she'll kill you, and I'm just beginning to like you."  
  
"Hang onto something real quick because its time to slow down," Anton said with a slight flourish as he pulled back on the throttle as curved the craft to bring it down for a ten point in the coroners parking lot.  
  
"All right," Anton said into the comms, "All of Santa's little helpers time to go get that corpse for your boss."  
  
"What did you just say!" he heard Holly yell with an apparent overdose of irritation as he heard footsteps coming towards him.  
  
He smirked as he opened the hatch and leaped out to land on the soft grass followed by three sets of smaller boots.  
  
"Okay," he said calmly holding up a sheet of paper declaring his permission to remove the body, "No guns or helmets, make sure you don't look to out of place."  
  
He put all of his own visible gear into the aircraft and watched as the elves did the same. With a practiced motion he pulled out a box and opened it to reveal four pairs of sunglasses.  
  
"Just don't get to disoriented," Anton commented as he head off across the lawn and into the building, smiling as he heard them grumble about the computer screen appearing in front of their vision.  
  
He walked in, the black leather gear he always wore flapping around him as he wished his blade was concealable. The Kevlar pockets scattered around the clothes could stop a tank, but not a legion of them like his special gear could.  
  
"You business," came the sound of a shocked man behind the desk, the name plate on the desk read Morgan Blake, but he glanced over at the man.  
  
He placed the papers on the desk and smiled, showing his teeth.  
  
"Right away sir," the man stammered as he rushed back into the morgue and had the body retrieved from the bins.  
  
Grub, holly, and Trouble entered, still staggering slightly about trying to se clearly, prompting Anton to smile more.  
  
Suddenly the man burst back in with the body on a gurney. Anton smiled slightly at him, lowering the glasses as he opened his mind on the mans, dominion was an easy thing for any one with any telepathic ability.  
  
"You will now delete all information on that body from your computer and forget it ever existed, we were here to deliver a message and nothing more," Anton said as the man seemed to be in a stupor as he pocketed the paper and walked out. 


	12. Chapter 9:Recruiting Fowl

Chapter 9  
  
"Blaze, Blaze come in!" the comms chirped angrily as he had achieved liftoff.  
  
"Damn it Two," he grunted, "Can't you just leave me alone, I'm not a part of the Foundation anymore."  
  
"Well," he heard the man say calmly, "Fade asked me to get you to do something for us, and there is a benefit for you."  
  
"I'm listening," he said as he sealed the rear cabin.  
  
"We have located one of those blades you are so interested in, you recruit and help train someone, and you'll have the sword before the day is over."  
  
"Who is this someone?"  
  
"His name is Artemis Fowl," Two said without hesitating, "A junior I believe, your current flight path will take you near his place of residence enrout to your home."  
  
"Alright," he said groaning, they had found a way to hook him back into the mess he'd barely gotten out of, "I'll try, but I don't plan on working my hardest on this one."  
  
"After that little firefight yesterday," Two said coldly, "You will."  
  
With that, the line went dead.  
  
"Well," he said dreamily as he punched new coordinates into the autopilot, "That certainly was interesting."  
  
Anton shrugged as he climbed to his feet, the autopilot would keep them on target, he wasn't risking anything with Holly, especially after that glare she gave him when he said to strap in. Throttling up would be very bad for his health with that look.  
  
"Time to warn the passengers that we have one more to add to our list," he mumbled as he walked back through the cockpit and into the passenger cabin  
  
"When we land," he said calmly, "Hide, I got an assignment about a minute ago to make a recruitment pickup."  
  
"What?" Holly managed to say as all eyes went to the corpse.  
  
"I have to pickup two people and take them back to my place to get them trained in what I do," he said, seeming to drone on and on, he was annoyed, that much was plainly visible on his face.  
  
"Could you tell us who?" Grub asked quietly from the back of the cabin, he looked a little sick about the body.  
  
"Someone named Fowl and his bodyguard."  
  
All three fairies jaws dropped to the floor. 


	13. Chapter 10:Intruder

Chapter 10  
  
Lucas smiled as he pulled up in front of Fowl Manor. He had read about this kid, and well, the late Miss Koboi had mentioned the name. It was perhaps a bit of a thing, he had heard about the family, of course, many had when they went underground, but dealing with a child should be easy.  
  
This one had apparently gotten to big for his boots and had written in various things, though his body guard would be the biggest problem, but would be dealt with easily enough, Blaze called himself a Gun Knight, or a Gun Angel depending upon which view he took. Apparently, a Gun Knight was anyone who had one of the Beast Blades. A Gun Angel was one who used the powers to do good.  
  
Thinking through the analogy, he decided to call himself a Gun Demon.  
  
Gripping the blade he stepped out and towards the gated entrance, Lucas called forth the power, transforming him, adding the armor as he walked forwards, one swing of the blade later and the gate was just so much rubble and twisted steel as he walked forwards.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Artemis, Dom," Juliet screamed as the front entrance was enveloped in a fireball, blasting her backwards.  
  
A haunting laugh filled the building as a massive figure stepped forwards and in, metal and leather slapping the stone floors as a black, grey, and silver figure stepped into the hallway.  
  
She looked up through the smoke at the figure before her, feeling a trickle of blood from her head as the creature, a beast from nightmares stood there, and then its head turned. It looked at her.  
  
And for the first time in history, a Butler fainted.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"What the." Artemis yelled as the alarms sounded.  
  
Butler turned and grabbed his handgun and stepped into the hallway.  
  
He didn't know what could be causing that much chaos, but he needed to protect Artemis. He dashed towards the entrance hall, glancing down, his eyes grew wide and he yanked a sword from the wall as he raised his firearm.  
  
Twelve sharp gunshots later, the creature was still standing, in fact, it hadn't even flinched.  
  
Its head turned to look at him, and then it crouched down and leaped, landing right before him, its blade swinging at his head.  
  
Butler parried, but his blade shattered at the force, but it did enough to slow the blade before it hit. Then the man was on him, one gauntleted hand grasping him by the throat, then he felt the world spin and an impact on his head, then the world went black. 


	14. Interlude 2 Destiny

Seven blades  
And an eighth  
Form the powers of the gods  
An angel and a demon  
A fight for the world  
A secret hidden within  
A wolfs howl and a phoenix's cry  
A rebirth of ones soul  
The truth reborn  
A serpent falls to the unicorn  
The blades of powers arise  
From the secrets rise  
The wings of an angel  
The demons fangs destroy again  
All fall but one to face the dark  
And the lights rebirth will be the key  
Two will fight  
One will win  
And to the winner goes the choices and a gift 


	15. Chapter 11:Recruitment Goes A Fowl

Chapter 11  
  
Anton's heart dropped as the Phantom landed, he saw a trail of destruction leading from the entrance and in. Something told him that his life was going to get a bit more interesting.  
  
"Trouble," he said into the comms, holding his voice as steady as he could, "We have a problem."  
  
"What kind of." Trouble said as he walked up, ".oh!"  
  
"Exactly," Anton whispered with a groan, "We've apparently been beaten to the punch, and now this is going to get far more interesting."  
  
The craft powered down, its optical cloaking devise was powered, rendering the craft invisible by natural light. With a hiss of escaped steam the hatch descended.  
  
"Third floor, Women's Shoes, White Goods, and Fowl Residence," Anton said with a slight smile as he climbed out, Trouble and Holly in tow, Grub was still to freaked out to get past Opal Koboi's corpse.  
  
The wreckage of the gate was scattered even past the spot they had landed at. It was damaged by what appeared to be damaged by a weapon similar to his own blade, which, by the way, was back strapped to his side.  
  
"Our problems appear to be intertwined," Anton said continuing his calm, collected exterior, "These marks appear to be made with the same weapon that killed Miss. Koboi."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
Anton held up his Icon Prostar and opened it to reveal the computer.  
  
"Blade match is identical due to damage, it's a fresh blade as well, composed of a mixture of mythril and iron."  
  
"How do you know that?"  
  
"Identical composition to my own blade, different type though, mine is made for finesse, that one is designed for maximum damage."  
  
"Any other clues hotshot?" Holly grunted at him.  
  
"I'm betting on something wielded two hands, smaller than a Scottish Claymore though," Anton whispered with a shrug as he ran his fingers over a deep gash in the stone, though he kept on, "Either a Bastard Sword or a Great Sword, not to shabby of a weapon though its use still has a very rough edge to it, no skill at all."  
  
"So any clue as to what we're looking for?" Trouble asked with a grimace as he saw a cut in solid marble that was deeper than his arm was long.  
  
"Either someone with a lot of strength, chems or another psion."  
  
"Chems?"  
  
"Drugs designed to make someone seem superhuman, strips them of their humanity though."  
  
"Who would use them then?"  
  
"Why would people want to use any drug?"  
  
"Good point."  
  
They reached the ruins of the front door as a groan left it.  
  
"Well," Trouble commented, trying to sound cheerful, "At least someone is alive."  
  
"Hopefully they stay that way, go drag Grub out of the ship and grab the gurneys, I'll check on those inside."  
  
"I've got a bad feeling about this one," Trouble muttered under his breath as he and Holly headed back.  
  
"Those are cursed words," Anton whispered as he winced while walking in, "Just like, 'how could things get any worse'."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Alexi Stukolv was getting bored. When Lucas had given him a blade and told him to eliminate someone for him, he had thought that it meant an all out assault. The man had meant skulking around and laying in wait like a common mugger, it was despicable and degrading.  
  
He heard voices as he felt the power enter him, a leather clad figure entered underneath him, their were three voices, though only one figure entered, and this one appeared to be armed.  
  
He transformed, the blade he held was one of the older ones, one called the serpent.  
  
Instantly black, jade, and silver armor encased him as he leaped over the balcony to land in front of the man, the simple double edged broadsword free of its sheath and ready to kill the one who had come.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton managed to draw his blade and stop the first blow from killing him. As it was, he was thrown out of the entrance to slam into a fountain, demolishing it in the process.  
  
He focused his mind, drawing forth the power of the blade, he was ready to show that punk what a Gun Knight could really do. 


	16. Chapter 12:The Phoenix And The Serpent

Chapter 12  
  
Anton climbed to his feet; he felt the powers flow through him like wildfire. It was something quite powerful. He felt the energy resonating through the area. Two beast blades were active in the area, and that meant either that an ally or an enemy though judging from his welcoming, an enemy.  
  
One thing flashed through his mind, eliminate with extreme prejudice. Termination was what he was planning.  
  
The armor appeared around him in swirling light as he felt the turbo charge of he two active powers. Each one fed the other as Anton stepped back through the door.  
  
"He never said that there were more with the blades," Alexi laughed as he stood their across from the entrance, his broadsword at the ready, "A normal person would already be dead, so we might as well dance while he completes the mission."  
  
"Surrender or die," Anton growled, his katana positioned for a fight, "Those are your only two options."  
  
"I wouldn't count on it," the Russian laughed, "If you beat me, you still have him to deal with."  
  
Anton circled right, eyeing his opponent warily, he now sensed a dormant blade, one different and yet so similar to his own Phoenix blade. Their powers echoed off of each other filling the room with a shadowy pallor.  
  
"Anton." he heard Holly say as she walked up towards the door.  
  
"Holly, get the injured out of here," he snarled as he leaped vertically to avoid a horizontal slash, "And take cover, it was an ambush!"  
  
"D'ARVIT!" Trouble yelped as he saw the two armored figures go blade to blade.  
  
"Just do it!" Anton yelled as he parried a blow, the strike sending off a spray of gold and jade sparks in all directions, both combatants holding positions against the other in the center of the stone floor.  
  
"Gottcha," Holly yelled, as she spotted Butler laying against the wall out cold with more broken bones than intact ones, "This just gets better and better."  
  
Anton leaped backwards, his jump carrying him up to the railing of the second floor balcony, balancing on the masonry before back flipping to the carpet. He rolled backwards, avoiding Alexi's blade by mere inches.  
  
The Russian grunted as he yanked his sword from the floor, noticing the deep pit in it and brought the blade up vertical to parry Anton's next strike. The other bladeborne warrior was good, and a perfect challenge. He reacted to a motion, but then realized that it wasn't what he had thought it was.  
  
Anton's armored boot slammed into Alexi's stomach before whirling around to parry another counter. Feeling the area around him, Anton was focusing his mind, preparing himself for later, his foe was attacking like a berserker, and although it would give him an edge for the beginning, he would tire quickly.  
  
Damn him, Alexi growled as he felt the pain below his ribs, it was infuriating that this man could fight better than him, he pushed more of his anger and strength into the fight, one way or another, his foe would be in pain.  
  
"Close but no cigar," Anton laughed as he leaped off the side and into the chandelier, "You were close though, so shall we kick it up a notch!"  
  
Alexi hissed as he moved forwards, blade in position and leaping forwards, blade slicing through the ancient chain holding the lighting fixture up.  
  
"DAMN IT!" Anton roared as he leaped away before the elegant crystal chandelier hit the ground to shatter into a spray of shards.  
  
Touching the ground the chime of crunching crystal, Anton spun, glaring at the other Gun Knight with a look that would shatter diamonds.  
  
"We only found two of them," Holly yelled, "Two Butlers, Artemis isn't on this floor."  
  
"Shit," Anton grunted in reply as he parried another blow.  
  
He spun into another parry as he heard a strangely familiar voice nearby.  
  
"Blaze," the voice whispered with a voice that would freeze liquid nitrogen, "I didn't expect to see you here."  
  
Alexi leaped upwards to the walkway above, standing besides a large cloaked figure, a figure holding a boy that must be the one he was assigned to recruit. 


	17. Chapter 13:The Demon Speaks

Chapter 13  
  
"So you've nosed your way here early," Lucas whispered as he walked down the stairway.  
  
He was thankful that the Gun Knight could not see his face because it was yet one more thing to use to entrap his enemy. His foe was older than he was, the man had studied under the mystics before Raymond Archer and his merry band of do gooders.  
  
"So what lead you and the elves here," he laughed as he handed the stunned child to Alexi, "Because you came where you were not wanted."  
  
"Two asked me to recruit the boy and his bodyguards," the irritating Bladeborne responded.  
  
"Well," Lucas said with quite a bit of feigned shock, "You can have the bodyguards, I'll take the boy."  
  
"You must know that I cannot allow that," Anton spoke as he turned his blade on Lucas.  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"I have my orders and I will fulfill them."  
  
"Sorry, but I have plans for this one, and if you continue to interfere, I will be forced to eliminate you."  
  
"Then you will have to try to eliminate me," the irritating Gun Angel retorted, "because it is what I must do, I won't return empty handed."  
  
"Then," Lucas whispered with a hint of anger, "Shall we dance?"  
  
"What?" Anton said as he saw Lucas draw Wulf.  
  
The armor came and then three Bladeborne were standing in the hall.  
  
The bastard sword shimmered slightly as Lucas lunged with Alexi running past to get the kid out while the hero was distracted.  
  
"You cannot win," Lucas said as he lunged and moved precisely, leaving a slight cut on Anton's cheek.  
  
He reached up and touched the damage to his face and lowered his hand, staring at the red on it.  
  
"I must say good-bye for now," Lucas said as he followed his henchman out the door, things where certainly getting interesting. 


	18. Chapter 14 Angels Regret

Chapter 14  
  
Anton stepped through the ruined doorway, he still felt the burn in his cheek.  
  
"Damn it!" he roared as he scanned the gardens, "We were to late to complete the mission."  
  
"What happened in there?" Trouble said as he saw the blood.  
  
"Two other Gun Knights beat us to this place," Anton answered as he rubbed the blood away, feeling the pain more sharply, "And one of them killed the fairy whose corpse in the Phantom."  
  
"So things are more connected than we thought," Holly interjected as they entered the Phantom.  
  
"Yes," Anton said quietly, "we have the same foe, and with what has been happening, we need each other to end this."  
  
He held up his cell phone and dialed up Stiletto.  
  
"Blaze, I was wondering when you would check in," Sarah Singleton said through the phone.  
  
"Yeah," he replied with a smirk, "Well, Two put me up for a mission I couldn't refuse, but I need a forensics team to make a pass through Fowl Manor, and if possible, call in a Shadespeaker if you can get one to my families manor within four hours, one that won't spread what's found, send Wraith if possible."  
  
"Trust you to know when everyone who owes you a favor is within reach."  
  
"Well," Anton replied with a chuckle, "It is for a mission this time as opposed to running into a hot zone with no backup."  
  
"Nikolai still owes you for that one though."  
  
"Well, I may end up having to use that one as well, one of the people involved spoke with a Russian accent."  
  
"PERIL involvement?"  
  
"Unknown at the moment, but he didn't seem to have the abilities granted by Chems."  
  
"What was the mission assignment anyway?"  
  
"Recruitment."  
  
"I'm surprised at the lack of foresight all of us had concerning the Fowls," Sarah replied calmly, "But he covered his tracks quite well, I'm beginning to have suspicions that he is either a psion or a latent psion."  
  
"I wouldn't be to sure about that, probably just a rogue genius."  
  
"Perhaps, you are normally good at judging people, though you missed Kabal."  
  
"We all were, the same with the Shop."  
  
"Though some not so much as others."  
  
"I know, I didn't trust them before they split, but I still was betrayed."  
  
"Everyone is entitled to a mistake every now and then, you've made three."  
  
"Kabal and the Shop, what's the third."  
  
"Leaving."  
  
"I don't see that as a mistake, my life was changing me to the point that I didn't believe that I was human."  
  
"And your respite has corrected that problem for you?"  
  
"That and the help of some friends, though having a living family would have been nice."  
  
"Nothing any of us could do would have saved them, your parents died unexpectedly in the chaos of it."  
  
"Well," Anton said, still smirking as he noticed the time, "Send me a report of the forensics team, I'm taking the survivors to my home, I'll be in touch."  
  
With that he hung up.  
  
Glancing in the mirror, he noticed that the blood had dried, something oddly appropriate concerning who he was dealing with.  
  
"Come on," he said as he strapped in, "Lets move because Opal has a meeting with a Shadespeaker."  
  
"Shadespeaker?" Grub asked nervously.  
  
"They speak to the dead."  
  
"What kind of people did you work for?" Holly asked as Anton realized that all three of them had been listening in on his end, not what Sarah "Stiletto" Singleton had said.  
  
"The people who keep the world safe," he replied as he started the engines, "From itself." 


	19. Chapter 15 Speaking For The Shades

Chapter 15  
  
The Phantom circled Black Manor twice before its landing struts extended.  
  
Anton smiled slightly, this was the easy part, the house sensors had said that Wraith had already arrived at the manor. The crafts stealth cloak flickered off to reveal the crafts jets rotating downwards to carry it in for a landing as it was designed to do.  
  
"I'm having the medical team ready for admission of our passengers," he yelled to the back as the craft settled on a metal platform, "Be ready to open the hatches when the lift finishes descending."  
  
"Gottcha," Trouble responded as the lift kicked in, lowering the aircraft down into the underground hanger.  
  
The low rumble of the lift died out as the hanger closed overhead.  
  
"We're in," he said as he unhooked his harness, "Lets move."  
  
The dim lights came on in a sequence around the hanger as the hatches opened and lowered to the ground as ramps. He noticed the medical team he employed rushing forwards with gurneys as a well dressed figure approached, a young man with raven hair and jade eyes.  
  
"Good to see you again Blaze," Wraith whispered slowly as he stepped up besides Anton as he helped Trouble unload the Butlers, "It has been far too long."  
  
"I was planning on calling you when I had this place finished, as it is, its only partially finished, the outer walls aren't yet up to code," Anton laughed as he put his hand on his friends shoulder, "Though it is good to see you again."  
  
"I should have shown up earlier, it is a pity that your peace did not last."  
  
"Both Two and Stiletto think I made the wrong choice."  
  
"They didn't know you as well as I do, and they believe that peace is a luxury we gave up long ago."  
  
Anton smiled slightly as he remembered his first meeting with Wraith, it was something different at a more jovial time.  
  
* * * * *  
  
He parried the punch, drawing the fist to his left as he rolled backwards to avoid a foot sweep. The trainer had brought in other recruits to provide the training to everyone they could, he had been paired up with a Guardian, someone his own age.  
  
He back flipped upwards, feeling an inexplicable rush of power that carried him to the rafters.  
  
"Blaze!" yelled the trainer, "What happened that sent you up there."  
  
"I'm not quite sure," he replied as he glanced around, holding one of the braces, "I jumped and ended up, up here."  
  
"Well," the man said, "Get your butt down here!"  
  
"I'm sorry sir, but I'm not quite sure how I ended up here in the first place."  
  
"Get a ladder," the trainer said to the Guardian, who returned with it.  
  
A few minutes later, he was back on the ground and the trainer was running to try to figure out what had happened.  
  
"Thanks," he said to the Guardian, holding out his hand, "Names Anton Black or, if you wish, Blaze."  
  
"Call me Wraith," the man replied taking the offered hand, "I think I'll use Blaze for you, especially after that stunt."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So what did you have me called in for?" Wraith asked.  
  
"You will soon see," Anton replied as he motioned for the man to follow him after one of the gurneys.  
  
They followed a series of corridors and into a room where the corpse was placed upon a table.  
  
"I need you to help me find out the name of the person who did this," Anton whispered darkly as he pulled back the sheet covering the corpse, "Because I need to find him or her, he's wielding one of the Beast Blades."  
  
"Speaking of which," Wraith said as he pulled a long box from his bag and handed it to his friend, "Two sends you this in the hopes that it'll get this mission over with that much more quickly."  
  
"Thanks," Anton said as he stood up and slipped out, "I know you need to do this alone, I could sense the spirit, but talking to one is beyond my ability."  
  
He closed the door as he saw his friend nod in agreement.  
  
"And you trust this guy?" he heard Holly say and he turned, only half surprised to see the female elf standing there.  
  
"I owe him my life several times over, that is the most trust I have ever given anyone."  
  
"Sounds like a lonely life."  
  
"It was and still is."  
  
"What's in the box?"  
  
"Another one of the blades, one a friend uncovered, today you have already seen two blades in action and one I'm not to sure about."  
  
"What?"  
  
"One of the two we encountered at Fowl Manor was carrying a new blade carrying the powers of the blades."  
  
"What do you mean by new?"  
  
"When Atlantis sunk, seven blades were scattered about the lands, one in each world, or in modern terms, one on each continent. Each one bears a different power, the one I already wield is the Phoenix, it carries mainly healing and enhancement abilities, the others, I'm not to sure about." 


	20. Interlude 3 The Comming Fall

Haven will fall  
Not to blades or bows  
But to surprise  
Fairies think themselves above it all  
In that they failed to notice the fall  
They say  
Pride comes before the fall  
And fairies have been for to long without a fall  
But all is not lost  
Nor is all hope true  
It is a chance  
A plea and cry for help  
To an angel with the truest of heart  
That will lead the charge  
Without his help  
For forever will Haven be lost  
Fairies, one and all  
Must swallow their pride  
They must do one thing  
They must ask this man of mud  
Who wields powers they know not the extent of  
To come to their rescue  
A war will fall as a shadow across everyone  
Fairy and mudman alike  
As a wolf deems to rule  
Both below and above  
With armies of darkness  
He shall think that he has  
At his quest succeeded  
But then the angel will appear  
With flaming wings  
He will fight to save them  
And one will steal his heart  
Though she means not to  
It will lead to the path  
For salvation or damnation.  
It is his choice from there on  
A confrontation between an angel and a demon  
With the fate of the world in their hands 


	21. Chapter 16 Memory Regained

Chapter 16  
  
The ancient stone rocks of the walls came into view as Artemis Fowl the second awoke. He felt sore, and the chains around his wrists were doing little to fix that. He yawned slightly and tried to flex his hands, but to no avail as the door opened to reveal Lucas standing there, his cloak draped around him like some medieval warlord, Wulf hanging at his side did nothing to dissuade that appearance.  
  
"Who are you," the criminal mastermind said calmly, he never lost his cool, even in a situation like this.  
  
"I am the one who will be asking questions, though your own will be answered in time, for a price that is."  
  
"I won't answer you unless I am freed," he tried to argue.  
  
"Oh," Lucas said as he sat down before the boy, raising a hand and summoning a palm sized tape recorder, "You will answer me, or your mind will be in no shape to remember anything in the end."  
  
With that, Lucas entered the boys mind, and began to file through the childs memories.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Suddenly Artemis remembered something as his mouth moved slowly, repeating one word over and over again, it was Holly.  
  
"Who is Holly," Lucas growled, he had found nothing other than a few schemes that he had thought Greenpeace or PETA behind, well, some of the more radical members anyway.  
  
"I won't tell you!"  
  
"Oh," Lucas said calmly, "I know that your memory was suppressed roughly five to seven years ago when you were in your early teens, but I could read everything else, I want to know about the elves, one of them seemed to fear you to the point of selling herself out for a chance to eliminate you." 


	22. Chapter 17 Calling Spirits

Chapter 17  
  
Wraith moved the body to the floor as he cleared his mind. Communicating with the dead was exhausting and dangerous, something that required absolute control of his own mind.  
  
He slipped to the ground, opening his bag and retrieving the items that he needed, five candles and a lighter. He slowly drew his Washaif blade and sat it before him as he placed the candles at the five points around him, lighting each of them in turn. He felt the presence of the fairy's spirit there as he relaxed into a cross legged position.  
  
He breathed deeply as he focused his thoughts upon the name of the dead sprite. He opened his eyes a crack as he watched the flickering red of the candles turn ice blue. He knew the spirit was there, waiting for contact.  
  
An electric tingle flooded his senses as he released his breath slowly and he felt a mist rising, he felt the shadows of the Fringe around him. He was one of the few Guardians who trained as both a Shadespeaker and a Fringewalker, but he knew all three worlds and he felt them now.  
  
"I open the way to speak to the shades of the fallen," He whispered as his hands slowly encircled the grip of the blade, its bone white surface glowing silver amidst the blue light, "I seek answers from one who has passed beyond the veil of this world and into the next."  
  
He held the blade up as he saw into the other worlds, the blade spectral and blindingly bright.  
  
"I call forth one who has left this world by force," he continued as he slowly ran the blade down his forearm, "By my blood I call forth the spirit of Opal Koboi."  
  
He knew that she had come as he felt the astral around him and he felt surrounded by a room made of ice or glass with fog hiding the floors.  
  
A figure stood before him, the figure of the woman whose corpse he had seen, he knew her as Opal Koboi, he knew her as if he were her.  
  
"Why did you, a mudman, call me," the spirit asked coldly.  
  
"Because," Wraith said with a face like cold iron, "We needed to find the one who stole your life from you, te one who left you dead."  
  
"What magic allows this?" the sprite asked as she walked over to Wraith, "Humans do not have magic."  
  
"Magic is something that some mystics can do," he replied honestly, "And for some simple things like calling fire or entering ones thoughts, a psion can do."  
  
"And which are you?"  
  
"I am a Shadespeaker and a Fringewalker, I seek answers for what questions that interest me."  
  
"And why did you seek me out."  
  
"To find the identity of one who betrayed you, the one who left you dead by Loch Ness."  
  
The fairy considered this for a moment before nodding in consent.  
  
"Then it is possible that I may help you, if you have something to offer me in return."  
  
"Myself, I have nothing to offer to a shade of a fairy who betrayed her own people."  
  
"And how do you know that?"  
  
"I called you forth, I hold keys to many of your memories, though the ones that came close before you died are still hidden from me."  
  
"If you know it all, then you will find a way to bring me back."  
  
"I am not well enough trained to perform a ritual as complex as that one, I know nothing of it and if I could, I would not trade another for you."  
  
"So a way of escape exists," Opal whispered, "I will help you then, but you must slay the one who did it."  
  
"Agreed," Wraith said as he began to tire, the ritual summoning was growing harder to maintain, "Then who was your slayer."  
  
"Lucas," she replied with a spectral tear in her eye, "Lucas Kabal." 


	23. Chapter 18 Training Session

Chapter 18  
  
Anton felt the cool air of the simulators as a slight smile crossed his lips. The scientists from the conspiracies labs had always amazed him, the holographic simulator was one of their best inventions as of yet, and one of the few he had managed to get included in the manor's upgrades.  
  
"Computer," he said as he unsheathed phoenix and laid the sheath against the wall, "Activate and run training simulation cee-five, difficulty level obsidian."  
  
A low tone signaled that the program was ready as he cleared his head, trying to concentrate on the task at hand.  
  
Swarms of black robed figures surrounded him. They had been designed to look like the ninja's from movies and cartoons, but they were many times more dangerous, that is if the safeties were off, and he never turned them off.  
  
"Begin simulation," he said as he raised his blade to a shoulder forwards position.  
  
The ninjas moved at him from all sides as he breathed in slowly, waiting for them to close as they drew blades.  
  
He felt them, felt their breath as it were, and he moved, leaping vertically like a bullet as three dozen blades intersected where he had been and fifteen of the ninjas had been eliminated by their comrades.  
  
"Training score now at fifteen points," the computer chimed, "The record is set at five thousand."  
  
His free hand gripped the crisscrossed ceiling braces as he scanned the area below him.  
  
Something within him clicked and he saw things.  
  
* * * * *  
  
He saw his families ancestral engagement ring on the hand of a small figure, one he couldn't make out.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Reacting like quicksilver he rolled, using his knees to grip the rafter as he released a stream of lightning upon the training drones.  
  
"Training score now at fifty-six, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
He released his knees to enter freefall for a second.  
  
* * * * *  
  
He saw a city underground, a place of refuge, fall to a wolf.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Rolling before impact, he landed in a crouch atop one of the ninjas.  
  
"Training score now at fifty-seven, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
He whirled, bade slicing through everything in his path as he leaped upwards, using the force of the blade as a propeller to cross the room like a lawnmower before rebounding off a wall.  
  
"Training score now at one hundred and fifty -six, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
His visions becoming clearer.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"You know this can't work between us," the figure said sadly, "You only live for so little time, all humans do."  
  
"Your wrong," he replied, "The blood of the phoenix flows through my blood, I am immortal, like you."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Training score now at nine hundred and ninety-six, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
He felt the powers rush through him as he felt like he was dreaming the fight and the visions were real.  
  
The ninjas piled upon him in a mound nearly twenty feet over him as he called on the fire. Flames danced around him incinerating his foes ina pyre as he rose to his feet.  
  
"Training score now at two thousand, seven hundred and ninety-six, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
* * * * *  
  
He saw fairies falling from the sky as an armored figure stepped through the shadows, grabbing the girl.  
  
"You will now die," the man said as Anton realized he was atop a plateau surrounded by armies clashing, humans and Fairies allied against a force from the shadows.  
  
He saw his blade glow as seven sigils shone bright  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Training score now at four thousand, three hundred and twenty-nine, training score now set at five thousand."  
  
He raised his hand and a wall of ice erupted from the ground and collapsed over his foes as he swung low through another ninja.  
  
He was feeling clear headed now, and he felt drained. The visions were sill coming, stronger now.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"The phoenix's blood will make me live forever," he said to the girl as he opened the box holding the ring, "It is something that I know for I love you."  
  
"You don't know love," she answered, "You never truly understand it until you lose someone close to you."  
  
"I lost everything, and I do not plan on adding you to that list, you are to important to me."  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Training score now at nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine, training score now matches current score."  
  
He spun, blade finishing off one more ninja.  
  
"Computer," he said as he began to gasp for breath, "End program, record score."  
  
"Program ended, score now set at ten thousand." 


	24. Chapter 19 Falling Shadows

Chapter 19  
  
The path he had chosen was the dark one. He knew it was when he had chosen it, it was the easier path. He knew that he would be damned eternally for it, though if he did not die, then, he would not be damned.  
  
Lucas scowled at the glass of wine as he sat there in his home. Things were slowing down, the person he had gone out on a limb to recruit had been refusing to cooperate. It was something frustrating, the fairy had said that he was someone dangerous, and Lucas had taken that to mean a perfect ally in his bid for power.  
  
Gaining the seven blades that legends spoke of was the key to the power he sought, immortality, the powers of magic and power forgotten by all but the most studied of scholars. The blades power would grant immortality to one person and unlock the powers of the ancients within him or her, and Lucas would do anything to acquire that power for himself.  
  
He batted the glass away, the fine, hand blown glass shattering against the ancient stone of the wall. The purple spray spread across the wall and floor as he climbed to his feet, Alexi stepping up behind him.  
  
The Russian was his bodyguard and henchman, someone who was holding one of the original blades. It was a secret of the blades, with all but Wulf, that their powers resonated, raising the powers of the wielders by a power unimaginable. With his own weapon, it went one way only, he would power up, but they wouldn't, it was an advantage he would exploit.  
  
But, Blaze had new powers as well, something powerful compared to even his own with the blades. When the seven originals met with another they would merge until the wielder would lose and die. The eighth blade, Wulf, would only merge with the mixture of the seven and release the powers stored.  
  
Blaze was infuriating, he had nearly destroyed him but had lost when the agent got his grubby little hands on the blade. It was true that the blades sought out their masters when found, but t was humiliating that it was his foe that was thus armed. The loss had been quick from that point, quick and lethal, well nearly. He had almost died, only the water of the river had saved his life.  
  
It had taken him two months before he regained consciousness. He was still weak, but he was getting stronger.  
  
Lucas heard a low moan as he realized that his guest was waking once more, perhaps some sodium pentothal would work to get him the answers that he sought.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Alexi smiled as he thought of the new power he held as he saw Lucas slip through the door into the dungeon. He stood there thinking of the world he had chosen.  
  
He had first worked for the Russian Confederacy before defecting to PERIL. That hadn't lasted long as they had deemed to test their chems on him. He refused and ran, it was then that he found Lucas Kabal.  
  
It had been a day where everything went wrong, a lady tripped and he tried to help her. It got worse when she screamed for the police and had him arrested for assault even though he did nothing.  
  
Lucas had sent a team of lawyers to assist him in exchange for his help in retrieving two artifacts, one he now wielded, the other was now part of Lucas' blade. It hadn't taken much for him to work with the man, reaching a partnership. An assassin and a mystic, it was a deadly combination for all who opposed him. He remembered the legends he heard from the Guardians, when he was still under the cloak, of a cult of assassins, though he cared not for a cult, he wished to be stronger, the strongest warrior to ever live in the world. 


	25. Chapter 20 Ten Dead Men

Chapter 20  
  
Cristov Markus walked through the halls of the museum. A surprising relic had been found, in Ohio of all places. Someone had discovered an ancient blade, one marked with no hammer blow or heat. It was a cold forged blade, though the hilts binding was tested for almost a thousand years old.  
  
He hadn't known what to say when what appeared to be a longsword, of a type familiar. It was even more baffling that the steel was unscratched and in fact, all attempts to check it left no mark upon the weapon.  
  
It still was gleaming as if it were fresh from the forge and polish. It also was marked with a script that was indecipherable by all means they currently had, though it looked similar to ancient Japanese and Egyptian in several ways.  
  
Then he heard it, a scream, and he rushed towards the vault where the blade was stored. An explosion tore through the hallway like a hurricane.  
  
The pain was intense, but he soon felt no more.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Dominique smiled as she watched the fireworks happen. She loved chaos, it was, as they said, her element.  
  
The guards had been easy to eliminate, they had barely seen her before she had killed them both. A psion was hard to stop when they wanted to be. It was easy to make them stand still as she eliminated them, even to using their own weapons to do so.  
  
She was a telepath, one with enough power to be a scanner. The Shop had recruited her because of her abilities as a precog, though she had ditched them soon after as she wiped all mention of herself from the records of all of the parties involved as well as altering the memories of others.  
  
She liked to watch things burn and explode, it had landed her in a psychologists since she was six after torching the neighbors cat.  
  
Slowly Dominique walked into the ruined vault and scanned the area, smiling at the ten deaths caused by her way of breaching the vault. The beast blade was there, still gleaming as she held it in her hand and it began to glow. 


	26. Interlude 4 The Blades Song

When blades meet,  
Blood will flow.  
When they dance,  
The heart will show.  
When they fight,  
Time will slow.  
When blood is drawn,  
Shadows will flow.  
When they strike,  
A power will show.  
When one falls  
Forever will slow. 


	27. Chapter 21 The Mystic Land Of Avalon

Chapter 21  
  
Rena Walker walked through the streets of Tempest, one of the three cities of her homeland. The other two were Torrent and Winds. All three were of the nation of Avalon, a place ancient and old. The three cities were on the points of a triangle whose center was a temple made to hold one being and they made up the nation of Avalon.  
  
Now most of the world had forgotten about them, infact they preferred it that way. Merlin had helped separate it with a layer of the Fringe and though it was situated in England, you could walk right through the area where it had been and pass right through it, in fact people lived there in their huts and cottages.  
  
Magic still lived there, powerful and majestic, and was wielded by the mages and everyone else, though, only the most adept could wield its most awesome forces and earn the right to be titled mages. The temple in the center of the land was the tomb of a legend of his own time, a wielder of the blade Excalibur, King Arthur himself. Most of England had a myth about him returning alive, but a dead man cannot rise.  
  
The legendary Excalibur was one of the seven blades, the mighty Dragon beast blade. It held the powers of the first true dragon, the White Wyrm itself. A powerful force that had unlocked powers within the king that were being rediscovered in the recent history of the world outside of Avalon. It was coming close to the time when the barrier would be breached, and the one would come here as a last hope.  
  
The gift of Excalibur would be passed on to the one worthy enough to claim it from within the perils and pitfalls of the tomb. Merlin was frozen, apart from time there, and his spirit was still guiding the peoples of Avalon to this day nearly a millennia later. The magic also protected that area, a guardian barrier for the blade.  
  
She, herself, had just completed the seven trials to become a mage, though she was just learning herself. Most people don't progress even close to the powers a mage holds, and what they had is wild, a random thing that a mage learns to truly harness, though never control.  
  
She stepped through the entrance to the observation post, bowing the Master Nominus Luvale, the mage in charge of watching the outside world.  
  
"So you have finally arrived," Nominus asked her as he settled into his chair, the orbs circling him each displaying an event around the planet that had piqued his interest, "I was beginning to worry."  
  
"I'm sorry sir," Rena stammered, "I lost track of the time, my appologies."  
  
"Well, you're here," the old and shriveled man laughed as he winked at her, "And without using the excuse countless wizards through the ages had, that we are never late or early, we are always on time."  
  
"It was my fault sir."  
  
"It is good for you to take responsibly my dear, but on to business."  
  
"So what was I summoned here for?"  
  
"Well, the blades are being uncovered, I am tracking four and an anomaly in the outside world."  
  
"An anomaly?"  
  
"Yes, the powers resonate as if there is another blade uncovered and bonded, but all seven blades are found in their place and the powers now show eight of them."  
  
"So the prophecy is coming true then."  
  
"It would seem so, but if so, I fear for our world."  
  
"An intruder to our own refuge?"  
  
"Yes, it could come to that, the council," the old mage shuddered, "Has asked me to send someone to make contact with one of the current wielders, though they left the choice up to me."  
  
"And what was that choice, the rumors say that there are four wielders out there, and what you said seems to partially confirm that."  
  
"Yes, four wielders, one about to wield two of them."  
  
"Which ones will he use?"  
  
"The Phoenix and soon the Unicorn."  
  
"I assume that he is the one the legend proclaims as the angel?"  
  
"I'm not sure, those prophecies always seem to be given by a drunken god who speaks in ruddy riddles, but he is the most likely current candidate."  
  
"Then, when do I leave?"  
  
"As soon as preparations are complete, and if you finish this you will receive your next promotion, to a full mage."  
  
"Oh joy," she whispered, things were always difficult if they offered it as a chance for early promotion.  
  
"You have clearance to use one of the Pegasus outside of the distortion field, you and your mount will be fitted with cloaking devices as you still haven't learned any invisibility spells beyond ones that completely cloak you to the point of making you blind a well."  
  
"Yeah, they don't teach the other in the school unless you're being recruited by the intelligence units."  
  
"It's a pity that you didn't happen to learn them," the man said with a knowing smile.  
  
She smiled back, nearly everyone in the school learned them as fast as they could so that they could go places they were forbidden to enter.  
  
"I'll go get ready now," Rena said as she headed out with a spring in her step. Her first chance to see the world. 


	28. Chapter 22 Thoughts And Assignments

Chapter 22  
  
Anton slowly exited the training simulator and grabbed a towel to dry off the sweat that covered him. It was irritating that the only way for him to use the abilities as a precog he had was to expend energy, together the ability and the exertion would leech away at him faster than anything else, and another part of it was that it was out of his control when it happened.  
  
Something was happening, something dangerous, something that would change things, how he didn't know. He had left the conspiracy to find peace, but the world had found him again. It was irritating that he would be put back in this situation and be expected to change the fate of the world.  
  
He lost his family and friends to the conspiracy when an act of revenge against, him, against him rather than his family, had blown up their car, and an ambush eliminated the team he worked with. The world was spiraling downhill on him again, though he was close to accomplishing his own goals, he had to find the blades if for no other reason than to prevent forces from using them for evil. They had sunk Atlantis and that was the powers of just one of them, one that had recently been uncovered in the USA.  
  
He opened the box holding the blade Two had sent him, it was a slender rapier marked with the sigil of the Unicorn. It was the blade of light, a powerful force that would serve to keep the wielder safe from deception and fear.  
  
The sigil glowed with moon light as he grasped it, he felt its power adding to the warmth of the phoenix's energy by the katana. He held the weapon up, watching its glow grow into a warm light of blinding intensity. It was peaceful and fortifying, a light of purity came from the blade as he slowly drew it from its sheath. The ornately decorated leather of the waist loops and sheath itself.  
  
The energy reminded him of another time, a more peaceful and hope filled one. He remembered before that mission.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Seraph, take the right pathway, Blaze, you take the left one, I'll take the center!" Shade yelled as he brought his fighter around the bend and through the center canyon.  
  
"Last one to the beacon buys the beer," Seraph declared as he throttled up, "These sims are awesome!"  
  
"I don't drink," Anton said as he rolled on to the fighters wingtip, "But, yes, these sims are a great thing, fun to!"  
  
"The first wave of enemy fighters is incoming," he continued as he glanced at the radar display, "Twelve fighters per squadron with three minute breaks between squadrons, each fighter we down is ten seconds off of our time to the beacon for final firsts, right?"  
  
"As usual Blaze!" Seraph responded over Shades maniacal laughter.  
  
"Here they come," Anton said with a slight chuckle himself as he spotted one of them, "I'll take the ones in the middle and then drop into the canyons."  
  
"Roger that."  
  
"Blaze, I've got your wing, I'll cut through right behind you with Seraph in a pincer of those you leave behind, do leave us a few crumbs."  
  
Anton smiled at his friends as he armed the first two missiles and prepared them for launch, the enemy fighters were bunched to closely together for their own good.  
  
"I've got tone!" he said calmly as he pressed the thumb stud and watched the missiles go like twin shooting stars through the simulated dusk.  
  
"I thought that you were going to leave us some crumbs?"  
  
"Feel free to take out whatever debris is left," Anton said with a wide smile as the horizon blossomed in a chain reaction of detonating aircraft, each one taking the rest with it as he switched over to chain guns and accelerated to full attack speed.  
  
"You missed one ace," Shade commented as one heavily damaged fighter escaped the cloud of burning and falling former arcraft.  
  
"Look again," Anton said as his guns shredded the craft as it burst into flames.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Anton heard a beeping and he glanced over to see the comms array blinking and he walked over. With a simple flip of a switch, a face appeared on the screen.  
  
"Two," he said with a slightly dumbfounded look on his face, "I'm surprised you called this soon, I managed to get ahold of two of those in the house, the boy, Artemis, was taken by an unknown assailant and an accomplice both armed with Beast Blades, I don't have the firepower to take them on, they have a lot more skill than I do."  
  
"I wasn't calling about that, you have been temporarily re-activated, another of your blades was discovered, this one in the USA, Ohio I believe. It was stolen by what the security cameras show, and we believe are psion powers, the Company is waiting for you at Wright Patt Air Force Base in two hours, no friends this time though, you will take Wraith though, as backup."  
  
"Roger that, the two I did recover aren't currently conscious, I'll let you know when they are awake, Blaze out." 


	29. Chapter 23 A Divergance Of Friends

Chapter 23  
  
"He's what!" Root yelled into the comms array loud enough to send static through the line.  
  
"I'm on the line you know," Anton said coldly to the LEP commander.  
  
"Why are you leaving us out of this!" he yelled at Anton then.  
  
"I have my orders, you take Miss Koboi's corpse to wherever you take them and leave a communications devise here so that I can send you what I get on this," he replied.  
  
'And these orders come from who?"  
  
"My superiors, I am not allowed to tell you why, but Wraith and I have a mission that we have to go on immediately and it is related to what happened, we are now in an arms race with this new foe we both have."  
  
"I just finished my conversation with the shade of the late Miss Koboi," Wraith said as he entered the conversation, "It seems that one of our old enemies is behind this."  
  
"So you made contact?" Anton asked his friend.  
  
"How did you." Holly commented.  
  
"Yeah, her spirit was willing if we agreed to try to stop the sociopath," the Shadespeaker answered.  
  
"I thought that she was dead?" Foaly said, the centaur was getting dizzy listening to this as he tried to figure out just what on earth was going on.  
  
"She is," Trouble answered the techie.  
  
"Then how did that mudman talk to her?" Root screamed.  
  
"That one is actually quite simple," Wraith answered honestly, "I can sense the presence of the dead and speak to them in the fringe and spirit world, Opal has now left the Fringe to the Spirit World because she knows that her killer is gone and thus no unfinished business."  
  
"Why the hell wasn't I informed that mudmen could do that!" the commander continued raging.  
  
"Sir, we didn't even know until Anton called him in for assistance," Trouble responded, it was something that seemed to appease the LEP officer.  
  
"Yes, most of the world still doesn't know about us, though you keep our secret from your people, I'll keep yours from mine," Anton said calmly, "We'll continue working together if you have no more objections."  
  
"Fine then, Root out," Julius said as the line went dead.  
  
"Wraith, lets move," Anton said with a smile as he headed to the Phantom, flanked by his friend, "It's already been a very long day and I believe that it will get longer still before it is over." 


	30. Chapter 24 Haven Falls To The Shadows

Chapter 24  
  
Trouble was annoyed; the LEP had been punted off the case by two mudmen. A sprite was dead, chances are, with what he'd seen already, the men that kidnapped Fowl were probing him for information and would find out everything about Haven, it was chaos in command of everything again.  
  
"Holly, Trouble," came the shocked voice of a certain centaur, a certain, very shocked centaur, over the comms, "We have a major problem down here."  
  
"What, did the entire population of Howlers Peak escape and take over?" Holly said exasperatedly.  
  
"No, it appears that those black armored mudmen, you know the ones that took down both retrieval teams, well, they just showed up in Haven."  
  
"D'Arvit!" all three elves in the shuttle screamed, things just got a whole lot worse.  
  
"The ports are closed and we can't access the rest if we don't want them finding the rest of the shuttle ports, we need help, and you can't get down here."  
  
"We ought to go back and wait for Anton, he ought to be some helpful backup for us," Grub chimed in.  
  
"True, he s our best hope at the moment, it could also lead to us having two of the Butlers on our side for the mission to save our home."  
  
"Currently only the LEP headquarters and a few scattered pockets are still holding on against them, Vinyaya is dead, she tried to get them to calm down and talk, they shot her seven times with iron cased bullets, it's a whole lot worse than we had ever thought could happen," the centaur said, babbling now,.  
  
An explosion echoed over the line.  
  
"What the hell was that?" Trouble yelped.  
  
"They blew up the council building because they didn't surrender, Julius is actually considering surrender and he is drinking himself into a stupor with Private Verbil."  
  
"Julius and Chix are having a drinking party?" Holly said exasperatedly, "Then it must be worse than your saying."  
  
"We're on backup power and our storehouses have already been raided by these backstabbing."the signal dissolved into static.  
  
The three elves in the shuttle glanced at each other and back at the screen as Trouble gave it a few whacks to try to fix it.  
  
"Foaly'll kill you if you break that," Grub commented, "Things just keep on getting worse and worse, how could it get."  
  
Holly clamped her hand over the little elf's mouth, "Don't you dare say it."  
  
".get any worse," Trouble continued his brothers phrase without thinking to be shot a death glare by Holly.  
  
Suddenly the shuttle's power shut down and the small craft skidded to a stop, crashing through the hanger doors of the surface shuttle bay of Sara.  
  
"Ooops," both Kelp brothers said in unison.  
  
"You ruddy had to say the bloody phrase!" Holly raged.  
  
"D'Arvit!" 


	31. Chapter 25 The Conquerer And The Conquer...

Chapter 25  
  
Lucas smiled as he watched the building explode, it was a perfect victory, an impregnable fortress from which to launch his other plans. For what are the powers of a god for, if not for control of the world or perhaps even more. He felt that it was his destiny, his birthright, to rule, to command, to dominate the world and everything within it.  
  
He had a path he was following, one he had followed for his entire life, a path leading to violence and conquest, wars and legends, he would be the stuff that the tales and histories would speak of. He was the one to conquer the fairies and rule from their throne. It was a disappointment that they ruled as the surface did, by committee, though he would be the conquering king who takes control and reigns supreme over them.  
  
He remembered how he had learned of this place, this choice key to world domination and immortality. He remembered the one that had offered him technology that she believed secret and hers alone.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Opal Koboi had entered the ancient stone fortress he owned after giving up her own magic to escape from the fairy prison of Howlers Peak. She had searched for months as to find the most powerful ally she could, settling on this man, a powerful man whose source of power was shrouded in shadow, a veil on his past that even her own quite proficient hacking skills could not crack and she had beaten even Foaly.  
  
She had barely succeeded at getting her name on the list to enter a place that made every place she had seen before seem as secure as Central Park in New York City. It was borderline absurdity even for a paranoid pixie, she counted seventy five different identification protocols for the main entrance and many more for the side ones, and that was just the first lair, if you failed one of them, enough firepower was pointed your way that you would be lucky to have enough left of you for them to identify you by DNA.  
  
She eyed yet another pair of laser weapons and a disrupter array built into an alcove as she was met by a heavily armed and armored figure.  
  
"I assume that you are Opal Koboi," the man said as he opened the entrance.  
  
"Yes, I am," she replied quickly, "And you are?"  
  
"You may call me Markus."  
  
* * * * *  
  
Lucas smiled at the naivety of the fairy who thought that she was a criminal mastermind. He had pumped the creature for all the information she held, he used her one more time to empower his blade and himself with immunity to the fairy glamour, or mesmer as these ones called it. It seemed strange that these fairies were weak compared to some of the legends, something he had determined, he had at least one more force to eliminate in his path to rule the universe.  
  
Markus was someone who would be helpful in acquiring people needed for various things, Opal Koboi was one of them, but the man was almost to the point of being far to useful. Alexi was primarily just hired muscle, Marcus had arranged the assault on what the fairies called Haven, though it was not much of a refuge for them now.  
  
Alexi and Marcus were to him as Queens to a chess player, pieces, powerful pieces, yet just pieces, he was the king, if he was lost, everything would fall through. Everyone was a piece, something that could be sacrificed to keep him going for his goal.  
  
He reflected on what had brought him to this point, in his opinion, paranoia was a survival trait. It had allowed him to withstand many things, assassins being the least of which had threatened him, he had gained the power to go directly up against the conspiracy that he had once worked for. His one failure had turned out to be his trump card, they didn't know he was still alive.  
  
Opal Koboi had served her purpose as a pawn in his great game, a piece that's sacrifice had given him yet one more tool to use to keep his foes turned around.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Foaly was nearly in tears as he saw black armored troopers come bursting into LEP headquarters, guns blazing alongside captured fairy weapons. This was currently the last pocket of resistance against the mudmen. A grenade shattered the barricades they had erected before the elevators as gunfire ripped through the officers that had been holding the line there.  
  
The defense of haven had been a series of spectacular series of defeats that was only matched in its dismal failure by the audacity and boldness of their foe. Outnumbered and outgunned the LEP had retreated to every stronghold it could have, most of the children had been evacuated to Atlantis where they would be safe for at least the time being, they also cleared out everyone they could from the chaos. The hospitals had been the last ones evacuated, they were evacuating everyone they could through the pods at the moment, hoping that they could at least have a slim hope of planning and enacting a counterattack.  
  
He had at least sent a warning to the few elves still outside, Root had tried to lead an assault on the chute the intruders were using. It had been partially successful, they had managed to take down half of the shuttles the enemy was using before they were routed and captured, the survivors anyway. Commander Julius Root was one of the few in the group that went that were still running hot, it had let him survive the immolation of the rest, he was one of three survivors of the two hundred that were part of the raid.  
  
Foaly activated the total lockdown of the facility, dropping blast doors everywhere in the building. He was now trapped in the operations booth with no way to be forced out, though he couldn't physically help them, he could lead.  
  
Yeah, he thought sarcastically to himself, all those hours of playing strategy games the mudmen made against them online would be coming in handy, even though Root and Holly had scolded him so many times about their time wasting qualities, they would come in handy, the techie centaur would have to play general.  
  
Suddenly his eyes got wide as he saw a sight he had least expected, Chix Verbil becoming a war hero.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Chix grunted as a bullet grazed his right shoulder and he saw red. It was a surprising feeling, he remembered the pain from when he had been shot in the wing, it angered him and he, with his free hand, grabbed one of the blasters from one of the fallen officers and flipped the indicator to full power, or bloody hell everything in its path dies, as the few officers that used it consistently, its use also cut the battery life way, way down, about a hundred or two shots per charge.  
  
He opened fire with it and his own as he stood up from behind a desk, a smile seemed to cross his face as he saw the only female officer still in Haven, and the one he was still hitting on, crawling for cover as he opened fire on the mudmen.  
  
Stepping from cover and walking forwards, he tore up the lobby with both Neutrino 2001's on full auto, there was no thought in his eyes as he ripped through the invaders with anger seeming to flow from him.  
  
He and Lilly Frond were the only survivors of the detachment that tried to hold the line while everyone that could was evacuated with as much equipment as could be shipped out before the LEP pod vents were eliminated, the shipments continued, but they wouldn't last for long.  
  
As if in answer to that thought the flare of a rocket tore through the air to hit the tubes and detonate in a flash of silver flame. No one else was leaving now. Chaos was filling the fairies world, and they were failing to contain it.  
  
Chix grabbed Lilly's arm and helped her run, as he began to collect weapons for their use. He felt bad taking battery packs and other gear from his dead comrades, but it was something that he had to do if he and Lilly were to survive this encounter with an army of psychopaths.  
  
He and the female elf exited into the shadows and confusion of the streets, narrowly avoiding two platoons of foes heading into the LEP building.  
  
It was something that would have been inconceivable, and was until it happened, a mudman had declared war on them, and it wasn't a military unit, it was a rogue group with weaponry more advanced than much of what the LEP was armed with. Foaly had been shocked when he announced that, Chix new that because he liked to listen in, well for the time when he thought it would impress the ladies.  
  
But they appeared to just have highly advanced military technology, the rest was still at the normal mudman level.  
  
He heard a low whirr and spun to see a glistening pod enter the alley he and Lilly had hidden in, twin hover rotors kept it aloft as the weapons, two chain guns, spun empty, but unarmed at the moment as it searched for prey.  
  
Chix held his breath and shushed Lilly who hadn't stopped clutching him. Normally it would have been something he'd love, but as it was a grip tight enough that he couldn't feel his left wing, it was bad.  
  
It moved past, not noticing them as it swept trough the alley, he was glad for the helmet as he and Lilly slipped off into some of the less damaged sections of what had once been the safe haven of the fairies. 


	32. Interlude 5 The First Four Blades

The strengths of the phoenix  
Are in healing and in life itself  
It can perform miracles  
That to anything else would be unthinkable  
But to it those powers are easy to handle  
It's power can be found by those of the purest of heart  
  
The powers of the serpent  
Lay in the shadows and deep hollows.  
It is a crafty power and a dark one  
Reaping all who stand against it  
And it searches to cause death  
It's power can be found only by those who live to kill  
  
The powers of the unicorn  
Lay in the brightest of lights  
It is a defender of the just and weak  
Guarding hope and purity  
Its path seeks a current power  
It's power may only be found by those who know grief.  
  
The powers of the kraken  
Are of the oceans, rivers, seas, lakes, and streams  
It is a mad power  
Guardian of none but the insane  
It seeks the blood of others  
This darkness shall be wielded by one drenched in blood. 


	33. Chapter 26 Chaos Comes To Town

Chapter 26  
  
Dominique smiled as she watched the chaos spreading through the city. She had set things up to change the way she was being pursued by causing widespread destruction through out the city of Cincinnati.  
  
Explosives were nice things with their delayed timers. She knew the path she needed to follow, but the cops didn't. Three shattered police cruisers and a wall of destruction that raged through the city separated her from her pursuers.  
  
The way things were going she would leave the city without its defenders. She smiled her demonic smile as she swerved the Lancer to a stop. It was already damaged by a few detonations she had placed around. Her black leather clothing made her look like a dominatrix. She drew her new blade and focused, the ice blue, navy, and aqua armor encased her as the few remaining cops pulled in and stopped, drawing their side arms.  
  
Her eyes flashed in annoyance as she lunged forwards at them, her weapon at the ready to do its work She drove the blade through n engine case, passing clean through the closest police cars engine behind the wheels and watching it fall to the ground with a thunk followed by the back with a crash.  
  
The policemen fired at the armored figure advancing on them, though the bullets bounced off of the mystic armor the blade provided. She turned her eyes on them directly as a demonic smile crossed her lips. She raised her hand and a wall of ice rose from the ground blocking the bee stings of the weapons.  
  
She loved to kill, the bloodier the better. It was what drover her farther and father into the bloodlust that filled her veins. Destruction was another love of hers. She was chaos incarnate, and she loved and cherished it. It was her element.  
  
The doom of her wrath had come to the city, and its destruction would be what it took to satiate her for now. 


	34. Chapter 27 A Mission Briefing And Tracki...

Chapter 27  
  
Wraith climbed down the boarding ramp of the Phantom. He was still surprised that Two had managed to talk Blaze into returning to duty. But, it was a blessing he was willing to live with, he would be able to keep his friend close.  
  
He wasn't sure about what it was with Anton that had made him agree to the reactivation, but since Anton Black was Blaze, he could be reactivated in times of great need. One of the interesting things about Blaze was that his family was friends with the Room 39 control's, it was an Europe thing, families knew each other, at least the rich ones did. It was a wonder that Blaze hadn't ended up in the African Alliance with Elias Graham.  
  
But that would require a hole lot more sophistication for his friend, sophistication didn't come easily to an American whose grandparents, on one side anyway, were well known in England, even though they were Irish, being wealthy didn't hurt that though.  
  
Five Hummers were parked outside the hanger chosen to house Blaze's private aircraft, each one was staffed with members of the Company, the Archer Conspiracy's American member.  
  
"Your mission priority has raised a notch, the suspect is playing blow up and eviscerate the police, so your being briefed here as your gearing up, we have two of the latest Sagittarius, one for each of you with all of your usual refinements as well as a few more that the Broken Seal came up with since you officially retired.," Captain Jeremy Daniels said as he motioned for them to enter the Hummer in the middle of the convoy, "This person your after is pretty damned dangerous if I would say so myself, she already has racked up a body count of seventy five, most of those are national guard and police officers, not to mention the mercenaries the museum had hired to keep that relic secure."  
  
"Anyone with one of those blades is dangerous, I wield two of them, hopefully this makes me more dangerous than her," Anton interjected.  
  
"Of course, then lets get going, I'll be your control for the mission in the skies above to keep track of everything for you," the Captain said with a slight smile, he had heard of Anton Black before, the one that most operatives had called a biological killing machine after he single handedly took on a unit of chemical monsters with a fre extinguisher.  
  
"Yes, lets end this quickly and try to get home as quickly as possible," Wraith said as the convoy parked in a hanger and they climbed out.  
  
It was sparsely filled, two cars were parked side by side and two tables piled with equipment were the gear the two agents required for their mission as the news came on.  
  
".my god, she.she's tossing cars around like they were pillows," the announcer yelled as a truck tumbled end ofver end to smash into the news van, "We're going to need a lot of help to clean this up."  
  
"We have the city blockaded for the moment, we're the only ones who have this information outside of the city itself, we cannot keep it up for long though due to restrictions on what data we have to cobble together another feed to dupe the civilians into thinking that nothing s happening, we have several teams of telepaths and scanners and cleaner teams to clear up the mess wen your done, now hurry!" 


	35. Chapter 28 Duel Of The Psions

Chapter 28  
  
The two specially modified vehicles shot past the road block as the officers keeping it threw them salutes.  
  
"Wraith, keep going on my flank, we're close, all we have to do is follow the sirens," Anton yelled as he swerved around the wreckage of a fire truck, "I've got a hotspot on my sensors, I'm going in, stay back and cover me!"  
  
"Roger Blaze," Wraith said as both vehicles rolled to a stop.  
  
The two agents nodded to one another as Anton activated his armor, the Phoenix power and the Unicorns flooding through him.  
  
"I'll hopefully be strong enough to eliminate the threat without to much more damage," he said as he stepped forwards, the Phoenix at the ready.  
  
He saw her the same second she saw him, both of them glared at the other, blades glistening in the fading light of the setting sun between the towers around them.  
  
"It took you long enough, give me your blades and your end will be swift," Dominique laughed as she brandished her blade, "Otherwise I get to have some fun."  
  
"Try me witch," Anton responded as he circled her, and she him.  
  
It was a fearsome sight, and a beautiful one, beautiful as all dances are, but in a macabre sort for this was a dance of death between forces beyond most things ever seen on the planet. The two radiated power, three blades resonating with their inner fury as both of them drew closer.  
  
"Lets have a go at this," Dominique laughed, her eyes showing no humanity, only insanity and a hint of blood lust.  
  
"Shall we then," Anton retorted as he spun in, blade at the ready.  
  
A roar of clashing blades and a shower of sparks flooded the square as they fought in desperation, forgetting most finesse they had forced upon themselves as they danced the power flooding their senses like wine.  
  
Anton fought the beasts of the weapons for control as they dueled, Dominique and he. It was a flurry of rapid movement and flying sparks of all colors of the rainbow. Chaos was flooding around them as time seemed to slow.  
  
"I won't lose," Anton growled as he finally cleared his head, "I will defeat you!"  
  
"Never, the deep shall claim your soul!"  
  
"Don't plan on it!"  
  
Anton leaped upwards onto a landing on the Crew Tower as she followed. He would dance away as she would lunge to try to eliminate him. He was faster and he knew what he was doing.  
  
He leaped to the rooftop, he had chosen it because it was the tallest building in town. His blade glowed now as the moon rose from the horizon through the cloud filled sky.  
  
"Time to end this," Dominique snarled as they clashed again, blades meeting head on as she froze the rooftops and a flash of silver erupted from her fist.  
  
"A knife." Anton gasped seconds before it hit him in the stomach.  
  
"Right," the psychopath said as she kicked him hard in the knee as she pulled the blade from him and pushed him off the side.  
  
Anton fell, cold filling him like liquid flame. He coughed as he saw the lights around him. He watched time slow around him. He saw his life before him as he saw through time. His gift was activating again.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"And you think that you can win?" a mysteriously familiar voice said from a throne, a cape draped over his shoulder, "You have already lost, you just don't know it yet."  
  
"What have you done with her!" he screamed in response, "I know you have her!"  
  
"Yes, your precious little elf!"  
  
"Let her go, you can have the blades.for.for her!"  
  
"A deal then!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Suddenly he felt warm inside, stronger once more, as if a power had awakened within him. He felt the powers of the phoenix and the unicorn rise within him, willing him to live.  
  
His armor began to glow as sparks cascaded around him into a fireball of incandescent light. A sound like the call of a bird and the snorting of a horse filled his ears as he felt the pain evaporate and time slow to a complete stop.  
  
He felt heat and light within him like on a warm summers day, laying indoors in the light stretched out like a cat.  
  
The powers grew within him.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"So we fight then?" he heard the voice say, a loud and shrill tone, "To the death, and the world is the winners."  
  
"It is an acceptable offer," he responded, "Lets do this!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
The light was blinding him now as he felt the wind of the fall flow past him, he felt like he had earned just that brief respite. 


	36. Chapter 29 Prisoners Of War

Chapter 29  
  
Root groaned in pain. He felt the burns that still covered much of his body when the magic ran dry. He was angry with himself for what had happened.  
  
Haven had fallen to a horde of mudmen, the savages. It wasn't enough for them to have ruined the surface, why did they have to come to the lower elements to do the same thing.  
  
At least he was still intact, for the most part anyway. It was something unexpected that had ended everything down below. The mudmen had control of nearly everything by this point anyway, though from the sounds of things, the LEP headquarters were still putting up a fight.  
  
For a second, he wondered if Captain Kelp had taken over the defense and was living up to his name. Then he remembered that he, Holly, and Grub were still on the surface after the incident with that mudman.  
  
A small part of his mind put the blame on Artemis Fowl, but then he dismissed it because it was an impossibility. Fowl was many things, most of them involving illegal activities, but this was beyond him. Artemis wanted gold or help, not world domination.  
  
Suddenly he heard a sound outside of his cell. Julius turned to see one of the black armored figures standing there, this one with sunglasses and a helmet at her side rather than on her head.  
  
"Just who do you people think you are!" he fumed at her as she pulled a key off her belt.  
  
"Shut up if you don't want to be caught," she said with a flash of a smile, "I'm busting you out of here, I figure I have to get out before things get any worse."  
  
"And you are?"  
  
"Andrea Torch," she responded, "And I'm not really working for them, I work for Two."  
  
"Two?"  
  
"Look, I was spying on them and I was as blindsided by this takeover as you people seem to have been, so I'm getting you and everyone else I can out of here to take the city from these sociopaths."  
  
Root was still trying to figure out where he had heard the name Two before as he followed her as she let him out.  
  
"The other two are to badly injured to move, so they have to stay here," Andrea said as she passed him one of the fairy blasters, "But lets get our rears in gear and get out of dodge before we get shot."  
  
Root followed her lead and they ran for it. 


	37. Chapter 30 The Fairy Resistance

Chapter 30  
  
Things were going better now, Foaly thought as he watched his monitors. He flipped between the various sensors as he frantically worked to regain surface communications to keep the surface connected with the defenders of Haven.  
  
On one screen he watched two squads of human troops flanking a retreating LEP unit made out of a few tattered remnants of a three Retrieval teams and a few of the remaining Recon jocks.  
  
Fortunately the fairy's had a fortified position and the mudmen were out in the open and being whittled down by the trapped unit.  
  
Another monitor showed one of the few working DNA cannons filling the lobby with blasts designed to vaporize anything in its firing arc that wasn't a fairy or otherwise magically enhanced. The only major problems were the occasional cannon wielding drones that weren't effected by them that would swoop in every now and again to try to cause even more damage.  
  
The entrance hallway was already littered with corpses from both sides, piled high enough that it was a mountain there rather than anything navigable. He had lost track of Chix Verbil after the sprite went all matrixy on four squads of enemy troops, something he had managed to store on disk to get that sprite a promotion. Any fairy who could pull that off deserved one, and even Chix was no exception to that thought.  
  
All of those who stayed behind to try to keep their homes would be considered heroes, though the ones that died were already greater ones. Foaly felt sorry for not bothering to learn their names while they were alive, but now it was to late to get to know them.  
  
On yet another monitor, Foal watched helplessly as a pair of drones and a hostile sniper tore through one of the other squads in a bloody spray.  
  
Haven was not supposed to be like this, the centaur thought as he scanned the other monitors, each showing a worse scene than the last, Haven was supposed to be safe for those in it. 


	38. Interlude 6 The Last Four Blades

The powers of the gryphon  
Are based upon the winds  
It is a power of courage, honor, and truth.  
It seeks to guide and defend  
It will give its aid to the one who is noblest of all  
The one willing to die for those he loves and those he does not  
  
The powers of the golem  
Come from the earth and all its treasures  
It wields strength and near invulnerability  
Its hidden strengths are used to defend  
It hides its heart within.  
Only the one who can pierce their own shell shall wield its gift  
  
The powers of the dragon  
A mighty force of fire and power  
It was wielded by the first true king  
It guides and guards its hope and charge  
The energy of millions within its blade  
It will be held only by the one destined to take it  
  
The final blade is not yet known  
It will gain its powers by causing death  
It is the culmination of the four horsemen  
The power will try to rule over its brothers  
And death will be the power it calls.  
The one to forge it shall do so to the worlds woe. 


	39. Chapter 31 Mourning Blaze

Chapter 31  
  
Wraith saw a burst of flame in the sky as he retreated to the line Jeremy was holding on the freeway. He knew that it was something to do with Blaze. A surge of mystic energy surged through him a moment later, a shockwave through the fringe, that signified a release of dangerous power.  
  
He had lost one of the few friends he had in this world. It was almost unbelievable that Anton Black was the one to die. He shouldn't have let him go alone, they were dealing with something stronger than they had expected. Chaos was happening to the world.  
  
The world was changing and from all that he had seen recently, the changes were just beginning. If something was powerful enough to deal with one as powerful as Blaze, than all but a few of the controls were under threats of destruction.  
  
It was as if the world was unraveling around them, the conspiracy and perhaps even the fairies were now under a cloud, a way that everything could end and drop everything crashing in on them.  
  
"What's plan B?" he asked the mission control.  
  
"We blow her up," Jeremy said sadly, "An aircraft is launching to do a flyover for targeting and then we launch."  
  
"It seems like that is our only chance then," Wraith whispered, "I just hope that its not to late, if she has acquired the blades that Blaze carried, then we are in more trouble than we can deal with."  
  
"Yes, we will need to hope and pray for that."  
  
"Our hopes and prayers went with Blaze and he's gone, we don't have anything to help the bombs we have left to use."  
  
"Our last hope lies in the most primitive application of power, Blaze would have hated us, he emphasized finesse over brute force."  
  
"Perhaps that is what caused him to die, he would fight with skill rather than force, it was his trademark."  
  
"Yes, he learned it from the best, but we don't have the time to use that, our mission must proceed and then we will attempt to recover all three blades for use against the ones that are now against us."  
  
"What on earth!" Wraith yelled as he stared at the spot there the burst of flame that launched skywards, "Is that him?"  
  
"I don't know, but it just burned out the IR detectors," Jeremy responded, "And its growing."  
  
The light grew blinding before vanishing to a small stream of flame.  
  
"The fringe and the spirit world have gone haywire," Wraith said with a smile crossing his face, "It's him!"  
  
"Jesus Christ!" Jeremy screamed as he heard the news, "What on earth happened out there!"  
  
"Don't ask me, I've never seen anything like this before!" 


	40. Chapter 32 the Flight Of The Phoenix

Chapter 32  
  
Anton felt the darkness overtake him as he fell, his power was growing stronger though, no matter how long or hard he fought it.  
  
The flames took him and absorbed him as he stopped fighting the power.  
  
Suddenly the fall stopped and he glanced around in amazement. He felt warming heat around him as he glanced behind him to see wings of pure flame erupting from his shoulders.  
  
He glanced upwards and smiled, launching vertically like a ballistic missile and through the clouds as a blur of flame  
  
Dominique glanced downwards to seethe death she had caused when flame shot past her with a sonic boom. It was an impossibility, but it was the one she had gone against, alive and kicking, seeming to have gotten even stronger..  
  
Anton felt the clouds as he shot upwards, the flames of the wings dying down to crimson wings like a birds, a falcons or other stooping birds, a phoenix's wings. He smiled as he felt the creatures powers strengthening him as he surveyed the ground below him as the blade glowed ruby.  
  
"I guess it is time to end this," he whispered to himself as he closed the wings.  
  
The wind whipped against his skin as he plummeted, his armor flashing with the flames that faintly shielded him as he shot downwards through the clouds.  
  
"So you didn't die," Dominique commented as she spun to face him, Longsword against Katana.  
  
"A phoenix cannot truly die," he retorted, "Though an honor-less assassin can."  
  
"Then defeat me," she snorted, "If you can!"  
  
he smiled as he focused the light, the powers of the Unicorn, the emblem of purity.  
  
He spun the blade, collecting energy to be released as he hovered safely out of reach of any attempt the terrorist could dish out.  
  
"You.die.now!" he roared as he unleashed a stream of coherent light that tore through his foe and the gift shop on the roof as a flamethrower through gasoline.  
  
He saw the blade she wielded fall and he dove into another stoop, grabbing it before it passed six stories and he opened his wings souring in the calm air as he headed back to base.  
  
He loved the rush the wings were giving him, the power they provided. It was insanity to believe this without experiencing it, a surge of hope and life amidst the wreckage of the fight. Now within him, he held the powers of three of the blades. Phoenix, Unicorn, and now the Kraken answered to him and him alone.  
  
He spotted a gathering of Company troopers watching him and he popped a smile as he dropped towards them, armored boots touching the asphalt of the highway.  
  
"What the hell happened out there!" Wraith yelled at him as the wings burst into flames and smoldered down against him.  
  
"The powers within the blades helped me, they kept me alive," Anton replied, "But I sensed something, we have to return home as soon as possible, the new blade is now mine."  
  
Within a half hour they were in the air, the Phantom turning back towards Ireland. 


	41. Chapter 33 Crashdown And Recovery

Chapter 33  
  
Trouble moaned as he crawled free from the ruined shuttle. He saw Holly unharmed, but shaken, stirred, and possibly scrambled as well. Grub was alternating between fits of crying, screaming, and all out panic.  
  
They knew that their home was under siege and probably either falling or fallen at the moment. It was a devastating moment, and that would be if Trouble and Grub weren't barely conscious and Holly badly banged up in ways her Magic couldn't totally heal.  
  
They glanced around at the wreckage, nearly a mile of a furrow in the dirt leading to where the cabin rested against a rock. One of the three engines was shattered with wreckage strewn about in all directions, the other three were more or less intact, but most likely non-recoverable.  
  
The stench of smoke filled the air as Grub grabbed the medical kit and passed it to Holly before curling up behind a rock, he was shaking badly and was barely conscious as it was, the kid needed sleep.  
  
This was going to get worse if it was uncovered. Holly knew that the enemy Haven faced was not the whole race of mudmen, but a small group. It was a group that she saw as Anton Blacks enemy as well as the Fairies now. She had no idea how to deal with the threat she was now facing.  
  
At least Foaly had sent the warning, hopefully several of the fairies escaped, though Tara was now basically abandoned, that had already been identified because it had been mostly empty when the flare-up earlier had occurred.  
  
Trouble coughed, he had some nasty injuries and was the most serious. She knew where she had to go, but wasn't sure how to get to Anton's home. It was their one chance for help at the moment.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Something's wrong," Anton said to Wraith as he glanced over at his friend in the copilots chair.  
  
"What?"  
  
"The fairies are in trouble," he responded, "I can see it, I'm doing a flyover of where I sense it, I feel pain, one or all of them is in pain."  
  
"Point us in the right direction and I'll take over," Wraith said as he keyed up his controls.  
  
"Thanks," Anton responded as he swerved the aircraft towards a section of Ireland not to far from where he lived, "On course."  
  
"Hotspot on the sensors," Wraith said immediately, "Its dead on our course, bringing us low for a flyby."  
  
"Roger," Anton said as he grabbed the controls back, "I'll take back over."  
  
"Sensors going haywire, damage consistent with aircraft or low orbit space craft."  
  
"Its them," Anton replied as he brought the craft around again, "I've found them."  
  
A slight smile crossed his face as he extended the landing gear and settled in by the only living energy sources he could detect.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"How did he find us," Holly mumbled as she saw the crafts cloaking field deactivate and Anton step out in full gear.  
  
"You all right?" he asked as he and Wraith dashed over to them with the Phantoms first aid kits.  
  
"Now that you're here," she responded before she blacked out. 


	42. Chapter 34 Riding The Night

Chapter 34  
  
Rena summoned up her courage as she mounted the winged horse, she had never left home before, but as it was said, now is as good a time as any. She felt the weight of her bag on her back over the cloaking armor she and her mount wore.  
  
The black fur of the Pegasus shimmered slightly in the cool breeze as she glanced around her at the world she had grown up in. It was a silent creature, preferring the sound of the winds to its own voice, though it spoke when its opinion was needed.  
  
She had raised it herself since it was but a foal, one of a rarer variety due to lack of desire for rather than ease of breeding. Most people wanted a white Pegasus with the wings of a dove, she desired a black one, with an eagles wings, bred to be strong, fast, hearty, and with a rather high endurance. It was as close to perfection as she thought that one could get to. Her father raised various breeds and let her pick one, she chose a small foal with a strong heart and powerful stride, and smart to, well as smart as a race of bird brains could get, but it was rather wise if not knowledgeable and quick learning.  
  
She muttered to herself about what she would do if she found that the prophecy was wrong and with the proper use of a time spell what her revenge on the man or woman who wrote it down would be.  
  
She urged her mount skywards as she mentally counted down the time until the gate from Avalon into the rest of the world would activate. It only happened twice a day and the path would remain open for but a minute. At eleven-eleven during both morning and evening were the times the magic barrier was designed to weaken enough that one could penetrate it at certain points. Of course, occasionally, an outsider would stumble in during those times and have to be bribed and duped into either forgetting that it existed or thinking he or she was but dreaming it had occurred, either way, the nation had remained hidden for over a millennia.  
  
The count was down to two minutes as she came into view of the rim of the world as it opened into the normal world. She remembered hearing about how it became known as the rim, but it was something that she wasn't sure how true to real life that tale was or if it was in fact nothing more than a fairy tale itself.  
  
The existence of fairies themselves were being debated as they existed in records, but none had been encountered by those from Avalon who left their private world. The records spoke of a Fairy King named Frond who knew Merlin and collaborated with him in developing the first spells necessary in building Avalon as it was today. Though, certain other records spoke of a race of smaller elves that were unlike the ones who appeared mostly human that lived in Avalon itself.  
  
She, herself, was half-elven and perhaps that is what contributed to her rapid advancement as a mage. Her mother was an elf herself as was Nominus. They still had an uncanny knack for crafting the best supplies in Avalon if not the world, though they seemed to become rather single minded about their fields, she had listened to three elven senior mage-craftsmen debating on the best choice to make a stave from for seven hours when she began her training. One of them was the senior she was assigned to learn from and in typical fashion, she was stuck recording the records of the conversation for the archives.  
  
She closed her eyes and urged her mount forwards, passing through the barrier just before it closed.  
  
Instantly, she coughed at the soot in the air, no wonder a lot of groups had left if the air quality was this bad not to mention what ever else. She circled twice to find the directions and headed off. 


	43. Chapter 35 Nightfall

Chapter 35  
  
Chix Verbil was already having a bad day. He was slightly injured and was hiding in enemy controlled territory. He had been hiding with Lilly Frond for almost a day now, though he wasn't quite sure how long the situation would last.  
  
None of the fairies had planned for the situation that had come upon them, it was a disaster though, leaving their home in ruins as the invaders took over with a devastating pace. The LEP armor had been designed to take a lot of punishment, but heavy weapons and assault rifles were among the list of things not on that list, and the LEP had several hundred more to add to the annals of dead heroes, a list that other than the occasional loss of an officer or two here and there, had not had such a huge list to add since the days of Frond.  
  
He had found a hiding place that would keep them protected from most things that the invaders had been using to cement their control of the city, though the drones that patrolled Haven were among the trickiest buggers he had ever thought could exist. They had a knack for finding things better hidden than he ever thought the luckiest bastard could.  
  
Suddenly he heard gunfire and a few shots from what he thought was a fairy blaster. His ears perked up and he drew one of the four blasters he was now wearing. Quickly, he checked the power cells.  
  
It was at that moment that he heard Lilly scream. He spun and saw three of the drones hovering around her and he fired two shots, nailing the same one with both hits, once in one of its hover pods and the other dead center, dropping it to the ground with the sound and smell of sizzling circuits.  
  
The other two turned and fired at him, the four cannons firing as he dove for cover as flashes of laser fire filled the alley. He saw figures moving in on him from behind as he peeked up from the stairwell into some fairy's basement and fired, picking off one of the other two drones before assault rifle fire filled the air from the opposite direction.  
  
He knew that the fight would be impossible to win, he was in a spot where he could keep somewhat safe until they decided to use explosives and then everything was over.  
  
Then out of the corner of his eye he saw a blur, a form similar to a mudman, but distorted as if it were made of glass. It was perched on a windowsill, he saw it more easily, but he wasn't sure what it was, it wasn't a shielded fairy, it was to human looking and it didn't seem like one the way it cloaked.  
  
Chix dropped the drained battery to the alley floor and slapped in another as he prepared for the worst, then a miracle happened.  
  
The last remaining drone exploded, the wreckage falling to the ground with a foot long piece of sharpened metal protruding from it as one of the mudmen were lifted off the ground by the figure he saw. The enemy that had been lifted gave a choking sound as a blade extended through it and it was dropped aside.  
  
Suddenly the figures eyes flashed crimson and the liquid look vanished to reveal a grey armor clad figure, distinctly mudman looking, but carrying a wicked looking blade as a flash of flame rushed from its back as he realized that it was carrying some sort of jet pack. It slammed into the force of troops, blade moving as but a blur before it was clear, coming o a stop a bare foot above the ground, sheathing the sword as its foes fell to the ground in a bloody heap.  
  
The figure stood their and slowly lowered to touch ground in a crouch as the flames vanished. The helmet retracted into the armor as with the rest and the jet pack.  
  
It was a mudmaid standing there with several swords strapped on over a leather jacket, blue jeans and a t-shirt. Her platinum hair was unusual for someone who looked in her early twenties or late teens, in other words, Chix Verbil's jaw dropped like a rock with a rocket booster on it.  
  
"Who.who are you?" he managed to stammer as he brought his blaster up on the specter before him.  
  
"Call me Death," she answered with her codename, "And you can see why I'm called that, though as it would seem, I am on your side, so put the weapon down!" 


	44. Interlude 7 Avalon's True Power

Avalon carries with it a power  
A power that is both a blessing  
And it is also a curse  
To the world and its wielder  
The choice of which is up to  
Only the one to draw forth the blade  
Shall be able to choose the outcome of the seven  
It is the fate of Excalibur to be so fated  
The destiny of the world lies upon the warrior  
Who fate deems worthy of its blade.  
For good or for ill  
It is up to none other  
The one whose deeds are worthy of greatness  
Shall be the one who fate hands the key.  
Excalibur shall be his  
Both the one and the all. 


	45. Chapter 36 Dwarven Morality

Chapter 36  
  
Mulch was a thief, a good one at that, but he had only gotten out of a slump of rotten luck thanks to Artemis Fowl. The dwarf had followed the masterminds instructions to a letter and it had kept the LEP furious at him, but he was a free dwarf and planned on remaining free.  
  
It hadn't been to hard to convince the council to order the LEP to back off after he claimed, and had documented, twelve cases when they had paid more attention to him than anyone else, it was to the point where the council had called it harassment.  
  
He held the disk that the boy genius had given him all so many months ago, he had made a promise to return it to the boy after the mind wipe and when all the hustle had died down. But with the LEP ordered to leave him alone, he would return it.  
  
He had been headed to Fowl Manor in the most round about way from the apartment that he had acquired in America, the very one that Fowl had uncovered before the events in the artic circle.  
  
His jaw was open wide as he came up in the flowerbed, there was wreckage everywhere. It was utter chaos strewn around. This was not how he had planned it, nor could he have predicted it in any manner he knew of. Mulch knew that the Fowls had enemies, but this, this was ridiculous!  
  
He entered the building through the shattered front door, realizing that not even a bull troll could do that level of damage to something. It was an eerie feeling that things were worse than you ever imagined and what was lurking in the shadows.  
  
He saw the television suddenly come on and Artemis' face appeared.  
  
"I'm not sure how long I have, but I managed to evade my captors for at least enough time to say what I have to say," the pale boy said, "And this message is set to repeat every fifteen minutes when I am done."  
  
"Artemis?" the dwarf stammered as he saw the screen.  
  
"The fairies that mind wiped me a little over two years ago are in danger," the boy continued as the dwarf realized that it was a one way transmission, "Someone heard my name by a traitorous fairy who gave information to a psychopath bent on world domination, his name is Lucas Kabal, he is a dangerous man who seems to be capable of reading minds, but enough talk, Butler, Juliet, if you are still alive, I am in Haven, and I need your help if I, and those who began to trust me before I let them make me forget."  
  
The mastermind sighed, "I hear them coming, so I must end this now or even this last hope will prove worthless, until we meet again."  
  
With that the screen went black save for a timer in the corner.  
  
"What on earth have I gotten myself into this time," Mulch muttered to himself as he leaned against the damaged wall. 


	46. Chapter 37 The Flight Of The Valkerie

Chapter 37  
  
Gyr smiled as the engines came to life with a quiet whisper, though the craft vibrated like most of the fighters he had flown, and nearly everything else he had been in, and that's including the F-117a stealth fighter, or wobbly goblin as the pilots referred to it. The new craft the company had him testing out seemed like an interesting craft, based off of technology captured from the Shop's Phantom aircraft, one of the twelve in conspiracy control, though one of them was under the private ownership of an ex-agent.  
  
"I'm ready to begin the test flight," he said into the comms, "Captain, do I have final clearance?"  
  
"Roger that, clear skies Gyr," came the cool and collected response from the tower.  
  
"I copy, heading out!"  
  
"Give the Shade a full work out."  
  
"Will do!"  
  
He thumbed the engine to full power as he rocketed down the runway. The craft was maneuvering beyond anything he had yet flown, the vibration dying as he began to move, the craft left the runway and into the air nearly without a delay. They had a V-TOL system installed in the craft, but it wasn't yet time to test it yet, though he would test out some of its other capabilities.  
  
"This thing is flying smooth," he laughed as he inverted and leveled off at a mile up, "Now to really kick it up!"  
  
"We're deploying a squadron of drones for you to deal with, so don't get your hopes down!"  
  
"Roger that, I'll knock them down for you!"  
  
"If you can keep up with the pilots down here, these ones are run by the best of the best and aren't set on AI at the moment."  
  
"So I get to keep the unbeatable edge then?"  
  
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," came the response.  
  
"Activating OCD and throttling up to full attack speed," Gyr responded as the craft vanished from view and the radar screen, "I have them on radar uplink now!"  
  
"Go for it, your weapons are hot!"  
  
"So what was the idea of giving me a half load of missiles and a double load of rockets?"  
  
"To add to the challenge, anyway, the lock on for your missiles will give your position away."  
  
"Roger that, I'm closing in," the fighter jock laughed as he spotted his foes, "Lets see how many I leave after the first pass."  
  
He armed the first missile as he climbed skywards and locked on to a wing pair and fired. Before they could evade, the warhead struck home. The blast incinerated the nearest enemy and clipped a wing off the second one, eliminating one sixth of his problems with his first strike.  
  
"Easy as shooting fish in a barrel," Gyr exclaimed as he dove under the falling wreckage, switching over to the four chain guns his craft carried mounted under the cockpit in a crescent shape before coming over the flames to right side up, "One missile left me with a smaller problem, my guns will make it even less of one!"  
  
His craft moved with more agility than anything he had experienced, he knew it was supposed to make all of the other craft seem like gawky adolescents, but this was overdoing it, he had cut speed and was hovering as his foes came into cannon range, ripe to be eviscerated.  
  
He opened fire as he triggered the underside jets to full power, sending him into a cartwheel feeling maneuver, something he hadn't ever done before, it was borderline ridiculous as he eliminated five more of the drones in one pass as he noticed that the charge for the cloaking devise was running down, it apparently ran off the same generator as the engines that let him hover, interesting.  
  
He rolled back to heads up as he armed the rockets and deactivated the cloak. A slim smile crossed his face as the swept back wings and dark grey fuselage became visible once more as he opened up, the four rocket pods pouring explosives into the unprotected rears of the drones, eliminating three more.  
  
"I like this bird, can I keep one?" he asked as he throttled up and reactivated the cloak with the hover engines shutting down.  
  
"Don't get cocky, you still have two targets left, and if your done grandstanding, get to it!"  
  
"Roger," he responded as he switched back to missiles and immediately got tone, "And he said don't get so overconfident."  
  
"I heard that!" the flight officer roared as te missile was away, smashing through the nearest foes engines before arming and detonating close enough to shatter thefront half of the last drone.  
  
"Mission accomplished," Gyr said with a whoop as he turned the craft around to land, "Why are we rushing these birds out of testing anyway?"  
  
"We have two agents trapped in a place that s now heavily fortified and we needed some aircraft to assist, these ones are the only ones we currently have that could be of use, they are being produced as we speak, the testing is a formality."  
  
"You mean Death and her partner?"  
  
"So the rumors are already out," groaned the flight officer, "Well, yeah, that sociopath we sent them after went underground to a place we didn't even know existed, we're using all hands to prepare for an assault before he gets ahold of whatever it is that he is after." 


	47. Chapter 38 The Hunter Returns

Chapter 38  
  
Artemis Fowl was still halfway confused, he remembered things and didn't at the same time, but he knew that he knew it and was responding that way. He also suspected that he had known much more, very much more.  
  
It hadn't been to hard for him to make his escape, after all his father had forced him to train with the Butlers I order to keep him safer than his father was after the kidnapping. Now he knew much more, and he was on the loose in Haven, though, not exactly free due to the sociopath that had kidnapped him. Kidnapped him, he was supposed to e the criminal genius around here, though that man seemed to be more insane than intelligent at the moment and quite power mad as well.  
  
His next task was to get away, he had already sent a warning to the Butlers, hoping to have some chance of an escape if anything more went wrong. He vaguely remembered getting taken, but it wasn't to clear, he remembered seeing Butler and Juliet on the ground, and suddenly a terrible thought hit him, what if they were both dead, what if they thought that he was dead as well.  
  
He realized that his foes were much more powerful than anything he had yet gone against. It was a maddening problem, what was it that he had missed that could signify such a power.  
  
Then his mind turned to a site he had recently hacked, a site that gave information on all kinds of things, things he didn't have time to understand before he discovered that a virus had been put on his system and was fragging his hard drive. It was almost inconceivable that something like that could have been done. He, for an instant, had now thought that it was possibly Foaly's, but nothing he had seen that had come from Haven had been so blatantly destructive, the centaur wouldn't have tried that, he would have simply severed the connection.  
  
But he had seen words he was beginning to suspect had to do with his captor, words like psion and mystic, and a man named Archer. After he had fixed his computer, he ran a check of the name Archer as a last name and came up with quite a bit, lots of action in Iceland and Australia where he ran a scientific institution called the Archer Foundation, but that was all he could uncover that was recent, though that was just Raymond Archer, he found thousands of records referring to a Conrad Archer as well.  
  
It was at that point when the house alarm had been triggered. It was getting on the borderlines of insanity now, he didn't know exactly what he knew, but he knew that it was something big, very, very big. Artemis was sure that he could eventually find out what was going on, but he would need to get out of this place first.  
  
He knew he was in Haven, but he knew that those who were holding him were not fairies of any sort, they were humans, though what powers they had were still a mystery to him, he knew one of them had tried to read his mind.  
  
The hunter was grateful for that, though a bit aggravated at the loss of privacy, as it had brought back at least part of his memory. It was time to get some vengance on his captors though as he began to work, one good thing about being a generalized genius was that he could use a lot of different things to his advantage, and he could be just as effective as a saboteur as a criminal mastermind. 


	48. Chapter 39 Demonrise

Chapter 39  
  
Lucas was getting irritated, these fairies were proving to be much more dangerous than he had ever believed they could. He had also lost the blasted child he had hoped would be a useful ally and he had lost the highest rank fairy he had kept as a prisoner, the cameras showing one of those blasted Archer agents, how on earth did Archer know what he was up to  
  
He had also received reports of dead patrols everywhere, all done in with blades both thrown or hand wielded, none where ever left behind, but there was a lot of chaos going around.  
  
Damn these fairies, they didn't know when it was better for them to quit! He was halfway planning on eradicating several of the nuisances to get the rest to pacify themselves if this continued. He had already begun construction of his base down here, a fortress that would give him control of the world, with all of the ways in and out of the Lower Elements, he would have to go quickly or else his plan would fail before it had even begun, though they had nothing that could be used against him anytime soon, so he had time, but not much of it.  
  
He poured himself a glass of wine and smiled slightly, things were still on schedule though slightly disrupted by the chaos around him. The one major pocket of resistance still standing against him was effectively cut off from all support and would eventually fall to siege.  
  
He knew that some problems were inevitable, but he had overwhelming force and he had control of all the active entrance points to his lair, but it was going to get much worse before it got better, though most of that worst would be on his enemies.  
  
The powers he would harness when he finished translating the texts in Havens library would be something of great strength to him. Already he knew that one of the blades lay within this place, the Golem, but he was yet to find its exact location.  
  
With that blade with him, he would, with Alexi, go track down Blaze and eliminate him for his blades and to eliminate Anton Black and his entire family from the universe. He was related to him, he knew that much, in fact his brothers and sisters had gone to the funeral for Blaze's family, a tragedy that he had caused because he hated them, they had money and wealth that they refused to share with those on the other side of the family.  
  
The powers he had obtained had first been for vengeance for that, the rest was the power he desired to obtain. 


	49. Chapter 40 Unicorns Hope

Chapter 40  
  
Anton was exhausted. He had just landed the Phantom back at Black Manor and had managed to unload the elves from the back with Wraiths help. It seemed that they always visited the medical facilities first, the Butlers were still sleeping, but their wounds were patched up.  
  
He smiled as he watched the medics get to work on Trouble and Grub, but he had enough energy to pull off one more healing of his own. He drew on the powers of the three blades he now carried, twisting the powers to his purposes and through that of the Phoenix. Its powers of healing was what he needed, and he called it forth around him as he felt the wings burst from him once more.  
  
Silver and crimson light flared around him as red and white sparks cascaded down his arms as he placed them on the elf's shoulders where her jacket was torn to reveal naked flesh beneath. He felt her mind slightly as the powers cascaded around like a hurricane within him as it flowed out of his fingertips.  
  
The girls wounds slowly sealed as he withdrew, the power flashing about the wounds still as the wings grew back in and he collapsed against the wall, keeping his balance as Holly jerked upright.  
  
"What?" she muttered under her breath, "What happened?"  
  
"You got hurt," Anton said as he gasped for breath, "I just healed you."  
  
"How?"  
  
"One of the powers I carry allows me to do many things that would be considered impossible," he responded, "Though I sensed your mind when I used it, I don't know how that one happened, my other powers are normally in control, must be that I'm to tired to keep my guard up."  
  
"What did you see?"  
  
"I saw something about the boy I failed to retrieve for those above me, you view him as a friend."  
  
"You saw Artemis?"  
  
"Yes, and I know what happened to him, I agree with the centaur that he is a viper, but he is our viper, he will help us if he can, he won't work for someone who kidnapped him."  
  
"Then you know that I viewed him as a friend?"  
  
"Yes, though I do not totally understand why." 


	50. Interlude 8 True Omega

Omega birth will occur when  
And only when  
The seven meet in the power of one  
One man  
One will  
One way  
Wars will arise in the shadows  
Mysteries will shatter  
The glass shall become clear  
The phoenix's choice will give the first light of hope  
Although many will wield the blades before the time comes  
They will not learn much of the truth  
And that truth  
Though hidden  
Shall be concealed for the two  
An angel and a demon  
Before they wielders will either become  
Heroes of renown  
Villains of terrible might  
Or earn the rest of a peaceful life  
It is the wielders at the end who face the dangers and the truth  
An angel arising on the wings of true hope  
Or a demon of burning anger and hatred  
The worlds fate lies in their hands  
And the winner takes the choice  
And the loser the fate of the eternally damned  
Only with the seven keys and the new key  
Shall the true wielder unlock the final secret  
The path of the Omega  
The path of rebirth  
The power of a god  
The knight shall become king when all appears to be lost  
Though the eight blades are just a first step  
The gifts of a god shall become the opening act  
In a play yet to be written  
The fallen wolf shall rise from a stolen sanctuary  
An army will gather  
The underground safety will be shattered  
Warriors will fall  
And the Angel and the Demon will face off for the first time. 


	51. Response To Reviews 1

Well, thank you one and all for paying such attention to this tale so far, I'd like to take this time to thank the current reviewers and ask for more support. Review the story and enjoy it, I'd like to know if I mess something up and would like to know how to fix it. Much thanks all for the support so far.  
  
alex472 Thank you for your support with the story, I'll keep it going for as long as it takes to finish unless something major happens.  
  
Hyperion Birth No I will not turn them over to Two, he is not really that much of a player in this story so far though that may change once I reach the retaking of Haven, he and Root would have a friendly little shouting match though and that would be the end of it  
  
Also, if you want me to, I may start putting up previews of later events 


	52. Chapter 41 For Who The Bell Tolls

Chapter 41  
  
Death lead the way through the tangled and ruined streets of Haven with Chix and Lilly in tow, her armored form leading the way, a Kevlar BDU with several built in surprises that Chix was just beginning to figure out. He knew that her armor had a shielding devise and the jetpack, though the helmet probably had other gear built in as well.  
  
The mud maid also went extremely well armed, she carried a lot of different blades and guns with a few explosives. She was something else, something that even before everything happened he would never have dreamed about hitting on, she scared him.  
  
"We're near the meeting point," Death said as she placed her hands on the pommels of her twin katanas, "My partner and all of those she was heading to recover before revealing herself should be here soon."  
  
"You mean there are more like you down here?" Lilly stammered as she leaned against the wall, gasping for breath.  
  
"Two infiltrators if that is what you mean, but only two, we didn't risk anyone else on the mission we were taking to find out what those maniacs were up to."  
  
"That sort of makes sense," Chix interjected, "Two people gives some backup without much use of force."  
  
Lilly stared at him with an odd look.  
  
"What, I used to like reading about spies, I thought that they were cool when I was a kid."  
  
Death had an odd expression on her face as she raised one eyebrow, "You wanted to be a spy, your to loudmouthed to play Bond."  
  
"Bond?"  
  
"A movie character," Death explained, intrigued by the sprite, "British superspy."  
  
"Mudmen and their movies," Frond mumbled as she slid to the ground.  
  
"I haven't seen one for a long time myself, gave up on them when I joined the chamber," Death said with a sigh, "I didn't have the time, though I did like them when I was a child."  
  
Suddenly death spun her head and rose her finger to her lips to tell them to quiet down as she drew both blades from her shoulders. The twin shafts of silver steel moved silently through the air as she seemed to become a shadow again. 


	53. Chapter 42 A World Once Surrendered

Chapter 42  
  
Anton slept, and as he rested, he began to dream, a dream that was a memory brought back to life. He saw his last fight with the enemy that had caused him so much pain.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"Kabal!" he yelled as he leaped backwards, dodging a piece of falling scaffolding, "You won't live through this one!"  
  
"Watch me Blaze!" the maniac laughed as he cast a lightning bolt from the heavens at the psion.  
  
Dampening the shock by focusing the powers within him and distorting his own electromagnetic field, but it still hurt like hell as he was launched backwards. With a grunt he slammed into a wall and slipped off the catwalk to land below.  
  
Glancing around for a weapon as he saw his own blade smashed against the concrete floor, he spotted a shelf holding books and a katana. Rushing forwards as another bolt of lightning hit the ground, this one mere inches from his face, Anton lunged and grabbed the blade as a black garbed figure landed before him.  
  
* * * * *  
  
His eyes jerked open and he rocked to a sitting position. Anton had been avoiding those thoughts and memories since they had occurred. Some things in the past were best left there and not constantly tilled from the soil of history.  
  
He climbed out of his bed and pulled his robe on. His head was still muddled as he stepped through the French doors and onto the balcony of his room. Brushing his hair back with his hand he stared into the star filled sky, wondering just what on earth was going on.  
  
Anton didn't know how he had sensed what happened to the elves, but he knew that it was different than anything else he had experienced. Something was changing him, something that he didn't quite understand.  
  
His mind flashed once more to that fateful day.  
  
* * * * *  
  
Gunfire tore through the area around him as he swung the blade between him and his enemy, reacting with all of the psionic speed he had to use the weapon to block the hail of bullets as he rolled to the side.  
  
"Try opening your eyes next time," Anton retorted as he heard the gun click empty.  
  
"I'd love to know just how you did that, but I have a feeling that even a Shadespeaker won't be able to speak to you when I'm done with you Blaze!"  
  
"Catch me if you can Kabal!"  
  
* * * * *  
  
Watching the stars, Anton had never felt more alone. The rise of the moon allowed him a brief respite as he pondered it, wondering about its silver light and its power in relation to the blades.  
  
He glanced down at the garden dome that filled the courtyard. It had been built by his aunt when she was young to keep flowers growing all year round, the single piece of material that rose from the roofs to form the dome kept the courtyard feeling like a Caribbean island all year round, and that was how it was landscaped, sand and water.  
  
He glanced down, seeing Holly below, wandering through the flowers he had around the edges of the greenhouse.  
  
Slowly, a smile crossed his lips as he slipped over the balcony to land silently behind her.  
  
"I'm surprised that you're still up," he said calmly with a wide grin.  
  
She jumped and glanced behind her to see where the voice had come from, and a slight, barely noticeable smile crossed her face.  
  
"All of us from my world are as you would say, night owls."  
  
"Although, I had noticed that, I just thought that you would be resting after that injury, healing you from that kind of damage took a lot out of me as well, and I had a lot of rest before it."  
  
"My own magic was depleted trying to stay intact after the crash, and that is why I've been wandering around, I need to find a specific type of plant, and an old one."  
  
"Tell me the type and I'll see if I can help, I have several here or in the other three courtyards or even the grounds, it was my aunts hobby to raise plants, and I learned from her."  
  
"I really shouldn't be telling you this, but since you put me back together after the crash, I need to find an ancient oak tree."  
  
"How old does it need to be in order to fit your requirements?"  
  
"At least a hundred I believe."  
  
"I may have just the one, that is unless a three hundred plus year old one wouldn't quite work,' Anton answered as he lead the young elf through his home and out the back to a large stone porch that arched around a massive and ancient tree with a slowly moving river just below.  
  
"It's just perfect," Holly stammered as she glanced around it for a seed.  
  
"Its one of the things my family has watched over for centuries, and it was planted here by the first Black to live here as a sapling from where he came from, said it reminded him of home."  
  
"Where did he live before that?"  
  
"That is a secret I cannot tell you about, only those of my family may know it."  
  
"Oaks are something special to my people," Holly said with a slight smile, realizing that there were still some secrets left.  
  
"And to my family, especially where they came from, but don't try for any more unless you want the spirits of my ancestors to force you into a shotgun marriage with me for you having the secret."  
  
She stuck out her lip at him and then laughed, he joined in a second later.  
  
"So its that secret," she managed to say as she spotted a few acorns near the top of the tree and started to climb up after it.  
  
"Yes, and has been for longer than I have been alive, and that has been long enough to remove several illusions from my thoughts," he answered as he saw her reach for one of the acorns.  
  
It was just out of her reach and it wouldn't be safe to get any closer to it as the branch was already bending awfully close to breaking as it was.  
  
Thinking quickly, Anton reacted as the young elf lost her grip and fell towards the ground, right into his arms as he reached out with his mind and pulled one of the Acorns loose to float towards him like a leaf to land in her free hand, the other holding Anton's collar in a death grip as she shook like crazy.  
  
"Relax," Anton said as he carried her over to a bench, "You're safe now."  
  
It then crossed his mind that perhaps this was part of the future he had seen earlier during his training. He thought back on the history of his family, the first Black had been of a union of two courts in the hopes that he would unify them. A lady from each tried to get him to woo them, but he didn't fall for either, instead he found love outside of either. The man had never looked back, but he was a man, just not human. 


	54. Chapter 43 Trouble In Paradise

Chapter 43  
  
Trouble Kelp slowly shook his head as he woke up. He glanced around him at the dim lights as he slowly remembered what had happened.  
  
* * * * *  
  
"We're losing power!" he yelled back at Holly as she finished with the comms.  
  
"If it wasn't enough that Haven's in trouble," she answered as Grub shrieked from the second seat.  
  
"Holly," Trouble said as he struggled with the controls, "You're the better pilot, take over!"  
  
"It's not working!"  
  
"We're doomed!" Grub screamed as he tightened his crash straps.  
  
* * * * *  
  
With that he returned to the present, his head aching as he crawled to his feet, noticing the IV in his wrist and slowly drew it out of a bandaged arm. He realized where he was when he noticed a figure standing at the door.  
  
"What happened?" he muttered, half to himself.  
  
"Your ship crashed, Blaze felt it somehow, not really sure how," Wraith answered as he leaned back against the door.  
  
"That's one more question to get an answer for, our home was attacked and suddenly we lost power," Trouble said calmly as he forced his emotions down, "It seems that we have a common enemy."  
  
"I had already determined that after my conversation with Ms. Koboi," Wraith responded as he headed into the room and sat down on the chair in the corner, one of the few pieces of furniture in the sparsely decorated room, "Also, he noticed that you weren't healing after we found you unlike the time your friends were here."  
  
"Low on magic, can't even shield," Trouble responded as he climbed to his feet.  
  
"How do you recharge it, we might be able to help," the Shadespeaker responded slowly as he pondered the plight of his elven friends  
  
"There is a ritual my kind does to replenish it, we need an oak tree to perform it." Trouble said hesitantly, believing that the mudman would already be getting a mind wipe so why not tell the man what he needed to know.  
  
"Are there any other factors?"  
  
"It needs to be old, very old."  
  
"Does it matter the type of oak, there is one here that is centuries old, yet it is currently the only one of its kind, though its type I do not know."  
  
"That is not a prerequisite, though it needs to be a full moon."  
  
"So that moon is worth more than a silver call for those who here the call of a lycanthrope," Wraith whispered as he opened the blinds, "But the moon is full tonight, and your brother is also awake, but in a bad shape, I believe that he will be better off if he regains that power."  
  
"That is a good suggestion."  
  
"Then let us proceed with that plan," Wraith said, his emotionless mask slipping for a moment to reveal a smile. 


	55. Chapter 44 Fowl Thoughts

Chapter 44  
  
Artemis had been on the run for nearly thirty hours and had been without sleep for far longer. He had managed to get a signal out, but he had to evacuate the control room into the duct work before they could force the door.  
  
He had managed to acquire a handgun from a room with piles of gear in crates, if it had been more organized, he would have called it an arsenal, but as it was just tossed in gear, there wasn't really a place for that term for the room.  
  
Hearing the slight pattering of footsteps, he slipped away from the building, and crawled onto the rooftop. Now, Artemis Fowl had been to Haven before, but, even that hadn't prepared him, or gave him the slightest thought about the scene that greeted him.  
  
Flashes of gunfire erupted every now and again from various places as small floating disks seemed to patrol the streets below. He also noticed black clad figures standing sentinel in various places, though the rooftops, for the most part were abandoned. Though, it had been a long time since he had last seen it, Haven, in its current state anyway, was something that filled his gold seeking heart fill with sorrow.  
  
"Do you want to get out of here?" he heard a voice say from behind him.  
  
"What?" he yelped as he spun around, bringing the pistol to bear on a figure standing there, "Who are you!"  
  
"A shadow," came the reply, "I am here to evacuate anyone I can, didn't expect them to be holding a human hostage though, what's your story."  
  
"They thought that I would have information to help them and nabbed me from my home, most likely before they came here."  
  
"Fowl!" roared another voice, one he recognized as Root.  
  
"So have you invented another shade of red yet?" he asked the shielded elf.  
  
"So you two know each other," Torch commented, "Interesting, but cut the reunion short, we have to get out of here now or we'll be up to our necks in black armored shock troops."  
  
"Bloody hell," Artemis groaned as he nodded in agreement.  
  
"Also, I believe that some agents in my organization were working towards recruiting you though what happened to that is beyond me."  
  
"How do you."  
  
"I heard your last name, I am very good at putting two and two together and getting four."  
  
"For some reason I'm not that amazed about that with everything else that's been happening recently."  
  
"I bet few things do." 


	56. Chapter 45 Guns And Angels

Chapter 45  
  
Anton waited on the roof, he held one of the acorns from the oak, His mind was wandering through the history he knew of his family, a path that fate had destined his bloodline to walk.  
  
Ever since the first of his line had run for it, choosing his own destiny as opposed to the one laid before him. A destiny that would have to be faced if there was to be hope, true hope and not an illusionary one, one that he was now faced with. His life was such a tempest recently, and something tied him to the elf, it was as if the first destiny had grown through the barriers separating the world of the first Black and the last had fallen enough to give it a power of its own.  
  
He touched the nut and it glowed silver for a moment, the light glowing against the light chill wind, the first of the coming storm. He looked at the horizon, watching the flashes of distant lightning as he held the small nut close to his chest, feeling its power, its hope for a new life.  
  
He slowly drew his gun and stared at it, the glistening metal of its polished surface. His mind flashing through all of the times the weapon had been used as he laid it down before him and felt the power of the blade he carried.  
  
Anton felt the souls of three creatures flowing within him as well as his own. The phoenix, unicorn, and kraken were parts of himself that he now held within. The creatures that had sacrificed themselves to be the salvation of a world that they didn't even know would require them.  
  
He held the blade in one hand and the acorn in the other as he leaned against the chimney, both were glowing in the same glistening light, a light that was the same as that of the full moon itself.  
  
"Have I ever truly believed that the past." he whispered softly as he stared at the glowing acorn, "That the past was real."  
  
He sheathed the blade slowly as he held the nut closer to his face as its light grew brighter.  
  
"Did I just think that they were legends that spoke of my family?"  
  
He stared at the sky, feeling as if water was rushing around him.  
  
"Is it just now with the powers unfolding that I see them for the truth?"  
  
He wanted to scream, everything was going as it shouldn't. The powers that had been sealed away within his families blood was awakening, a time when he didn't want or need them. He wished that the psion ability had never awakened within him, that he had never gone into the shadows.  
  
"Do I believe, do I believe in the hope, do I believe in Angels?"  
  
He held the nut up again, watching the light flow from it, the one thing that seemed so different and yet so strong before him. Why was it that his family was the family he was in.  
  
"Fate stands before me, and the past behind me," he whispered as he dropped the nut and watched its glow slowly recede as it hit the roof and roll off to land in the mud besides the river, "I guess that I could go there and face the people my family left long ago." 


End file.
